Silence
by charmony
Summary: NPH 12 - Danger abounds as Carrie comes face to face with her abusive husband, Emily and JJ come under fire and the ones the team thought were the safest turn out to be in more danger than anyone thought imaginable.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I'm back and I seriously thought that I'd never get the alphabet finished but I did and it felt great! I'm sorry for the length of time between Z and this piece but I needed a few days to get out of the alphabet and get my brain back on a track for a normal story. Now that I've done that, I hope I continue to please with my writing style. **

**Many, many thanks to my faithful reviewers, fanficlover, Hazmatt, babygurl0506 and moonshine-036 for sticking with me throughout my alphabet journey and continuing in your encouraging messages.**

**Please be aware that the focus of this story isn't really on the case so I won't be spending too much time on it.**

**This one is rated M with violence, language and adult themes.**

**PLEASE NOTE: This is NPH 12. If you aren't already following this series, I recommend that you make your way to my author profile page and start with NPH 1, as some or all of this will not make sense otherwise.**

**DISCLAIMER: I sadly do not own Criminal Minds, its storylines or characters. I can only claim to manipulate them for the purposes of this story.**

Silence – Chapter 1

Carrie Whitman stepped out of the bathroom and stretched. She was feeling a little tired but was looking forward to putting the boys to bed and getting the night started. At the picnic the Sunday just past she'd made friends with the women who had partnered into the BAU through their relationships and they'd made a date to pop round and spend an hour or two in the hot tub once the boys were asleep. But first they had to get to that point.

She padded back to the den where she'd left them watching The Lion King and frowned slightly as she took in the silence. Considering Hakuna Matata was currently playing she sighed quietly as she stepped in through the door.

"Alright boys, what are you planning?"

It seemed as if time slowed to a stop as she took in the boys sitting silently on the couch, both crying and shaking. Movement off to her right had her turning away from them to see Vincent Whitman step away from the wall with a gun in his hand.

"Hello darling. Did you miss me?"

She ducked his first swing, suddenly so eternally grateful for the self-defence lessons she'd tried to laugh off and that Aaron especially had insisted she learn as she charged him, pushing him back into the wall he'd just stepped away from.

"Boys run and get help! Hurry!"

She heard a flurry of movement behind her as Vincent shoved her off him and struck out at her again. She was glad of his being off balance as the blow just glanced her temple but even that blow set her ears to ringing and knocked her back a few feet. She pushed the pain back, ducked the next blow and struck back. This continued until she tripped on a cushion that had been knocked off the couch.

As she lay stunned on the ground, fighting to catch her breath, she opened eyes she hadn't even realise she'd closed to find she was staring down the barrel of a gun.

"Say goodnight bitch."

New Section-

When they'd received the call that close to a dozen children had gone missing in Kansas City all in one night they'd dropped everything else and had left within the hour. They were already to the three hour mark and time was rapidly running out. The clues though had been numerous and they'd discovered the children dirty, naked and hungry just 12 hours into their captivity. Emily and Reid had been called in to help with communicating with the children, since most spoke only a little English overall.

She'd been relieved that the case was almost over and she could go home, admitting finally that she'd had enough and she needed to stop. Aaron had folded her close and told her he was proud of her for making such a tough decision and she was basking in the warmth of his arms when calls started to pour in that more children were missing and the suspect they'd originally had in custody had an airtight alibi for the night in question.

She'd very nearly cried as her husband kissed her temple almost absently and walked off to take control of the investigation once again.

Now she worked alongside JJ to piece together the evidence they held in front of them and that her too-tired brain wasn't fully comprehending.

"I don't think I can do this," she whispered as her vision swam. She'd been awake for almost 36 hours now and was beginning to feel ill with it.

JJ took one look at her and said easily, "You don't need to honey. Why don't you come over here to the couch and lie down for a while. I'll call Hotch and let him know what we're doing and if he needs to he can send someone else to assist me."

"I feel like I'm letting you down," she said tiredly as she allowed the younger woman to get her settled with her feet up and her head pillowed on a cushion.

JJ held her tongue and smiled slightly as Emily went out like a light. She pulled out her phone and dialled as shouting and a crash could be heard from the front room. She walked to the door and watched as about half a dozen cops picked up a man screaming about his brother being innocent and carried him out of the station.

"Hey Jayje. What have you got for us?"

"Not a lot. I just called to say you were right. I've just tucked Emily in on the couch. I'm flying solo here so if you need anything faster than you're getting it already, you might want to think about sending Reid to me."

Hotch chuckled softly. "Whatever you can do for us is fine. We're just getting to the children now so we are back to trying to find the unsub. Have there been any more reports of missing children?"

"Not as yet and I'm praying constantly that there won't be but who knows. How are these children?"

"Far worse than the rest. Three of them are already dead and the rest are showing some pretty horrific injuries. They're all still too traumatised for questioning and I think it might be days before we get any coherent answers from them."

"What does it look like?"

"Rape, mutilation and torture. I'm really glad you aren't here at this moment and gladder still that Emily isn't here. Morgan's taking it hard enough as it is and there is unfortunately a dead little boy here that looks enough like Jack that I'm struggling too. Kelly vomited before she got herself under control and there are still about three cops off doing the same somewhere nearby."

"No sign of the unsub at all?"

"We've got a couple more clues that are on their way back to you to add to our growing pile of undecipherable and another piece that is being rushed to a lab for analyses."

"Blood, hair or fibres?"

"A small combination of the three. They promised to get us answers as fast as they could. No one wants to leave this guy on the street any longer than necessary."

They spoke for another couple of minutes before ending the call and getting back to the task at hand.

New Section-

"How's Emily?"

"About at the point we expected her to be at. JJ's just tucked her in for a nap. I've no idea what was happening in the background but it sounded busy there. What have you got for me?"

"Not as much as I'd like, but Kelly grabbed Reid muttering about a potential lead to crack the case and that they'd be back in a minute. I saw them stop long enough to speak to Morgan and then they disappeared so if you want more information, speak to him."

He nodded as he continued surveying the scene. "I keep feeling like we're missing something so obvious we're going to hate ourselves when we figure it out because it means we could have saved lives if we got the break earlier."

"Don't Hotch. You know that all we can do is the best we can do and that we never knowingly put anyone in danger. Don't shoulder this now…"

"Hotch, Rossi, Morgan!"

They looked in Kelly's direction and saw her waving frantically. Exchanging grimly amused looks at her antics, they quickly walked around the scene in front of them to join the two youngest of their team. Kelly might have been new and temporary at best and Reid so awkward it was often entertainment for them all, but the two had proven to be an unbeatable team more than once as they sniffed out breaks in cases that appeared too tough to crack.

"Am I going to be amazed?" Hotch asked seriously.

"Better; we'll be getting the days' gold stars." She detailed what they'd found and the team nodded agreement with the assessment she and Reid had come up with.

"Right then; let's go get the unsub and go home."

New Section-

JJ sighed tiredly as there was more shouting out in the bullpen and did her best to tune it out. The same guy from earlier in the day had just kept coming back again and again and it had reached the point where it was just more background noise she didn't need to top off the headache she'd had for the last hour.

"What on earth is all that racket?"

"Hey you, welcome back sleepyhead. How are you feeling?"

"Better, but rather sore. I swear this is a rock masquerading as a cushion under my head."

JJ laughed. "As to the noise, there's a young man who keeps turning up screaming that the police arrested the wrong man and that his brother is innocent. I spoke to one of the arresting officers and he said they caught the guy red-handed. The case is airtight so they just keep escorting him out." She tipped her head to the side as silence fell outside the closed door and sighed. "Of course I doubt their goodwill will continue much longer. He's been in probably about a dozen times already."

Emily pushed up from the couch and stretched carefully. "I suppose there are just some things you can't give up on and belief in family is one of the biggest ones. I'm off to find a toilet before I burst."

JJ grinned. "I remember that part with little fondness. While you take care of necessity, I'll call the gang for an update on the case."

Emily smiled agreement and made her slow way to the door which had obviously been shut in an attempt to minimise the noise while she slept. She made a note to thank JJ for her thoughtfulness and opened up the door.

Later she thought it was like moving through molasses as she took in the scene in the main station house. As the man with the gun swung around toward her and she noted his finger twitch on the trigger, she wished fervently that she weren't so heavily pregnant as bullets suddenly sprayed in her direction and she threw her body back out of the door, landing heavily on the ground as pain kicked into gear all over her body.

As she pushed into the corner of the couch she'd just climbed out of and covered her abdomen protectively, she locked eyes with JJ across the room huddled at the other end of the other couch, phone still held to her ear as she waited for someone to pick up the phone.

End-

**A/N: I thought I might continue on from there but decided that this was the perfect place for a cliff hanger, hee hee.**

**I'll do my best to get the next chapter out by the weekend.**

**Please, please, please review and let me know what you think, even if it's terrible.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I love my sister. I really do. She gave me a mini laptop computer she is no longer using so now I can type during the hour I spend on trains every day to and from work and not just at home. So you can thank her for the more expedited postings you will be seeing in the near future. **

**Thanks to fanficlover, moonshine-036 and Hazmatt for reviewing the first chapter of this piece and giving me a reason to really get into working on it.**

**This story is rated M with violence, language and adult themes.**

Silence - Chapter 2

"Hey guys, I've got Garcia on the line and she's extremely anxious to speak to all of us." Derek put the call on speaker and held it in the middle of the group as Hotch pulled out his phone with a frown.

"Just give me a second. I've got JJ calling in. Go ah…"

His words were cut off as the sound of gunfire had everyone reflexively ducking as they looked around.

"We need you to come back to the station like yesterday. Some crazy guy's shooting at us and has the rest of the station hostage."

"You're surrounded by cops JJ; it isn't possible."

"Tell that to your wife who is currently bleeding from either a bullet to the arm or wooden shards kicked up by the bullets hitting the doorframe as she lunged out of the way," she hissed in return.

Before any of them could answer, they heard a distant male voice shout, "Leave your weapons behind and come out with your hands up. I promise not to shoot you if you appear in the next ten seconds."

"You'll have to give me a few more seconds than that. My colleague is pregnant and she'll need some help to get up." In a whisper she hissed, "Get back here before someone dies."

They heard JJ moving away from the phone and more distant to that, a male voice muttering angrily about something.

"Baby girl I'll need to call you back."

"No! You can't!"

"If you didn't hear that…"

"I heard it as clearly as the rest of you but it isn't the only issue you have to deal with."

"Well get in contact with Jordan and get her to deal with anything pressing you might need me for before I return."

"I can't; Jordan's on her way to hospital with a couple of bullets in her."

"What!"

They all stopped dead and turned to look at him as his world rocked underneath him. Kelly was closest and hooked a hand under his arm for support as she asked, "What happened Garcia?"

"Police responded to a report of shots fired at the Hotchner residence. They arrived to find Carrie had been tortured and was nearly dead. By the looks of the CCTV footage, Teresa was first through the door and had enough time to leap out of the way as the gunman swung round to shoot her. Unfortunately, in doing so she hit a wall head first hard enough to crack her skull. Austin appeared too stunned to respond and took the first bullet to the upper abdomen before Jordan tackled her out of the way and caught the next couple."

"What about Jack and Toby?" Aaron asked anxiously as his heart stopped.

"No one knows. When he first appeared at the house, he obviously threatened them into silence so that Carrie returned to the room unaware. That didn't stop her from tackling the guy out of the way so the boys could run and run they did. Carrie and the creep fought for a few minutes before he got the better of her and shot her the first time. He then proceeded to torture her until the girls arrived and interrupted. Despite being on maternity leave, Jordan obviously still carries around her service revolver and again, despite being shot a couple of times, managed to not only aim the weapon, but shoot at him. She didn't hit him, but she did scare him off. Although that could have been the cops arriving with sirens because they ran in a minute later.

"Anyway, I called and spoke to the police and alerted them to the most likely places to look for the boys but they haven't been spotted as yet and Jess is beside herself with worry because they didn't go to her for help. Will dropped Henry off with me and went out to look for them. Brad just left a message for me from the hospital; things aren't looking too good for Carrie and they don't think she'll survive surgery.

"I'm on my way to the hospital as soon as I finish this call and as soon as I have answers I shall call again and update you all. Know everyone's prayers are with you during these times and Strauss is doing everything she can to light a fire under everyone to get them searching harder and faster."

Aaron felt almost physically ill as he thought of his son out on the street and possibly being chased by a madman.

"What about the unsub Garcia? Do the police have him in custody?"

"Not yet and I can tell you this, it doesn't make sense to any of us; the guy who did this was a cop."

Aaron wanted to throw up as realisation hit. "Carrie's abusive husband is a cop. He got away with the abuse for years before that station was investigated for corruption. I kept a light tab on what was going on and her husband was one of the cops fired. They have a new Senior and he's doing an excellent job of cleaning the place up but it was too little too late for Carrie and Toby. Was the guy tall with sandy blond hair and mean eyes?"

"That's him."

"Garcia, I need you to tell me the minute they find the boys and call us with regular updates on the rest of the girls regardless of whether there is anything new to report. We'll go rescue JJ and Emily and be on the plane home as soon as I can manage it."

"I promise I will let no one sleep until we find those boys safe and sound."

"Thanks Garcia."

New Section-

"Jack, I'm really cold."

"I know Toby. But we can't do anything until my dad finds us and comes to rescue us."

"What if he never comes? What if my dad kills us before he gets here."

"He came last time and saved me from the bad guy; he'll come this time too. I promise."

New Section-

JJ watched Emily closely as she rubbed slowly at her abdomen with her uninjured arm. The guy who'd as good as signed his death warrant had allowed Emily to use the bathroom and to wrap up her arm. She was also the only one sitting in a chair while the rest were on the floor. But since sitting down and having her unborn child threatened if _anyone_ so much as twitched, she'd been so completely wrapped up in looking down at her belly that JJ was worried about her colleague and friend's mental and emotional state.

They were all aware that the station was now surrounded by every cop and fed in the city not in the building when it was taken. Billie now stood directly behind Emily with the gun pressed against the top of her head while the phone rang for the fourth time in the last two minutes. Someone was obviously trying to get through to them.

As the phone stopped ringing for all of a second before it started up again, Billie growled an expletive and backed up towards it.

"If anyone even thinks of moving while I'm on this call I swear I'll blow the baby to kingdom come."

JJ saw Emily flinch at the threat as she had the first time and though the stroking stopped for a second, she didn't look up as Billie picked up the handset and growled, "I swear, if you try anything, _anything_ at all, I'm shooting the pregnant fed."

New Section-

The relief at knowing Emily was alive enough to be threatened had long been eclipsed by their lack of successful negotiation with Billie. He still had complete control of the station simply because no one wanted to risk getting the baby shot and Aaron was feeling so completely torn in two that he was close to walking in there and just blowing the guys' brains out. His son was still missing, he'd just been told Carrie was dead and his wife was being held at gunpoint. He couldn't think of anything worse.

"Hotch, I negotiated having water sent in; sealed bottles only, but it means we can get in to assess the situation. Hotch?"

Kelly looked at Dave sadly. "Garcia just phoned; Carrie didn't make it alive off the table. There was simply too much damage."

"Shit," he said with real feeling.

"That was Morgan's reaction also."

"Jordan isn't…" he couldn't say it, didn't want to even contemplate it.

"Nothing is known of her condition yet."

"Could anything else possibly go wrong?"

"Unfortunately. Austin requires a transfusion of blood but the hospital is all out of her type and they are running out of time to find the right one before she bleeds to death."

"Teresa?"

"In a coma and still in surgery. She didn't have any news as to her condition on the table."

He shoved a hand through his hair and sighed tiredly. "I don't suppose they found the boys?"

"We didn't get that lucky. I'll help you take the water in or I can do it myself if you need a few minutes to get your head around everything?"

"Thanks for the offer but the way I look at it is the sooner we get this stopped the sooner we can go home to be with our ladies."

"I hear you and I'm glad you at least are still with me. Is it worth me keeping my ankle holster to see if we get a break?"

He hesitated. "I don't want to put Emily in any more danger than she is already in but I think we need to see if we can get a break. If he finds the gun, I'll kick you out and see if I can salvage the situation by stating that I didn't know because you're new to replace our pregnant co-worker. Grab a med kit too; we can see if he'll let us check out Emily's arm while we are in there. If he does, I'll distract him and try to draw him away. Kelly, we may only get one shot at this; if he turns away from her enough, you get her on the ground and you give the warning. After that, don't hesitate; if he starts to swing toward you or looks like he'll pull the trigger on someone else, you shoot the bastard and we'll deal with the rest later."

She nodded as they waited for the boxes of water to finish being bugged just in case the original plan didn't work and the standoff continued. Finally given the green light, he called through to indicate they were coming through with the water for everyone. He followed Kelly toward the door and watched her ankle; as near as he could see there wasn't any way to see that she had a small gun in her boot.

He pulled even with her and got the door to the station. She walked in ahead of him and stepped to the side out of his way. There they waited as they assessed the scene before them. Emily sat in the only chair, not looking at anyone as she rubbed her belly and Kelly prayed that she hadn't gone into premature labour. JJ sat against a wall nearby and looked back at them calmly. The rest of the cops they could see lay belly down on the ground.

Billie glared at them and pointed to the counter. "You can leave the water there."

Kelly smiled serenely, as if there was nothing wrong with what she could see. "We'd love to be able to Billie but the husband of the pregnant fed is our boss and has requested that we see how she is. It would go a long way towards seeing you get your brother back if you would allow us to check on her. Can we do that before we go?"

They held their breath and Dave sent up a silent prayer of thanks that Kelly was such a quick thinker. Finally Billie pointed at Kelly with his free hand. "The woman only. And you need to take your jacket off and turn around so I can see you aren't packing anything."

Kelly did as she was told and when Billie was satisfied he gestured her through. He had her open the med kit and show him what was inside before he let her do what she wanted to do. As Dave asked Billie if he needed anything else, she crouched down in front of Emily and peered up under her hair.

"Are you alright under here," she asked quietly.

"Not really. I have this horrible feeling that something is really wrong with Jack and he needs me right now. Is there any chance you've heard of anything being not quite right back home?"

"Let us get you out of this and then ask me again; we don't have enough time right now. I'm going to check out your arm. Do you know if you were shot?"

"It doesn't feel like it and it didn't look like it but it's possible I was winged because I didn't find any wood when I cleaned it out."

Kelly nodded and got to work unwrapping the bandage already in place as she watched Billie out of the corner of her eye. Dave was distracting him by asking almost totally inane questions and the guy was obviously getting pissed off by it. The hope was that he'd get so pissed off that he'd start waving the gun around. This in itself was a risk; anyone could get shot when she pulled her gun and especially if she had to tackle him. But it was a risk they had to take in order to end this insanity.

She was just wrapping Emily's arm back up after ascertaining that the wound appeared to be nothing more than a really bad graze that might need a stitch or two at its deepest end when Billie suddenly screamed and shifted the gun from the top of her bent head.

In one smooth move, she pulled Emily off the chair and to the ground, pulled her gun as she shifted to her feet, clicked off the safety and pressed the gun to the back of Billie's head.

"Billie drop the gun now and kick it away from you. Billie."

When he moved to spin to face her, she pulled the trigger just as he kicked her legs out from under her, losing her gun as she hit the ground. She lunged to grab his gun before he could use it but even as wrapped her hands around it, she knew she was far too late to stop disaster from happening.

It was going to be just one thing after another today...

End-

**A/N: I really don't have a clue where this one is going at the moment, so I think I might stay tuned also for the next instalment.**

**Reviews are an authors lifeblood, so please let me know what you think.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Haha! I am liking this expedited output time too. I might actually be able to keep up with my brain now. My sister is glad she could help out and thanks you for your thanks.**

**Many thanks for great reviews from fanficlover, Hazmatt and babygurl0506 and welcome back to blackandblueangel. Glad to know you are all enjoying this story and I promise Carrie's death shall not go unpunished.**

**Just a reminder that this piece is rated M for a very good reason.**

Silence – Chapter 3

"Toby, he sounds really mad."

"I know. If he comes down here, just do what he says and he might not hit you because you aren't family."

Jack stared at Toby in shock. He had been smacked on the bottom only once when he'd tried to sneak a toy he really wanted out of the toy store despite being told he couldn't have it. He knew now he'd been disciplined out of love because his dad had needed him to know it was wrong. But there was nothing nice about Toby's dad and the thought of someone hitting him because he was angry made him sad for Toby and scared for them both.

_Daddy, please come rescue us soon. Please…_

New Section-

"Are you sure she's alright to fly home? She doesn't look too good?"

Dave sighed tiredly. He didn't want to be in charge, but the man they all knew best as Hotch, the ultimate leader, had narrowed his near-panicked focus on his pregnant wife because he wasn't in a position to narrow it to looking for his son. Unfortunately for Hotch, Emily looked like she was ready to murder the man.

"Doctor, if you think Agent Hotchner is in a condition well enough for her to fly home, why don't you go get the paperwork and I'll sign her out for you?"

"Thank you Agent Rossi. I'll be back momentarily with the paperwork and some instructions for the next few days."

He inclined his head in thanks and watched as Hotch paced along the wall muttering and Emily sat on the bed, watching him as she rubbed her baby bump. The white bandage on her arm covered the graze the path of the bullet had taken and two small butterfly strips at the deepest end of the wound had taken the place of stitches.

Kelly had thankfully won the tussle over the gun by knocking the man out. They were both claiming it happened by accident and no one was arguing about how it was won, just that it had been won with no loss of life. Fearing that Billie would end up accidentally dead in the local police lock-up, the feds had carted him away with them for questioning.

Emily had been immediately taken to the hospital. The graze to the arm was tended to and an obstetrician had come down to check her over and had given her the all clear. She would need to be closely monitored by her own doctor over the next week to be sure, but the woman was certain there was nothing there to be alarmed over.

Since that announcement, his boss had been almost insufferably over-protective and if he actually made it home in one piece, it would be a miracle of epic proportions.

He looked up to see Emily staring at him steadily. She made a gesture with her head to the door and he nodded and eased out of the room to find the rest of the team gathered close by.

"Are we leaving soon?" Reid asked anxiously.

"Yeah kid, as soon as the paperwork comes through and I sign it off, we'll be heading home to our ladies."

"How's Emily?" Kelly asked.

"The doctor says she's fine; she just needs to keep an eye on her arm and see her doctor about keeping an eye on the baby after the stresses of the day."

"That's excellent news," JJ said and they all smiled agreement. "On the home side, I spoke to Garcia about the girls. Austin got the transfusion she needed and appears to be recovering already. Teresa made it through surgery and is in ICU being closely monitored. Jordan also made it through surgery and though she isn't as yet breathing on her own, she is holding her own and that is what the doctors are focusing on now."

They all breathed a sigh of relief and settled back to wait for the doctor.

New Section-

"Aaron, come sit over here for a minute."

"I need to think Em and I do it better moving at the moment."

She sighed internally. "It wasn't a request Aaron; come and sit with me for a minute."

He stopped and looked at her closely; with a sigh he moved over to the bed and sat down beside her. She held out her hand and he reluctantly placed one of his constantly fiddling hands in hers. She didn't quite understand where all his anxiety was coming from considering she'd just been given the all clear, but she'd get to the bottom of that in just a moment. She placed his hand on her belly and watched as his entire countenance changed and softened as it always did when he felt his daughter moving about.

She lifted her free hand to his cheek and made sure she had his attention. "I'm fine Aaron and more than that, _she's_ fine. We are both fine so I need you to take a really deep breath and calm down. The case is over, everyone made it out in one piece, another bad guy is off the street and the world continues to revolve. Please, just breathe for me for a minute."

She watched his struggle to comprehend everything she'd just said but he did breathe and whatever internal struggle he was dealing with that had been eating at him since he'd swept her up in a tight hug after she'd walked out of the station untangled. She could see something deep was still bothering him, but his eyes were clearer and she knew she'd broken through whatever was keeping him from thinking clearly.

He turned his head and kissed her palm. "I'm sorry love. It just seems like every time I turn around lately, someone I love is being hurt or threatened. I think it just all boiled to a head today."

She shifted her hand to run soothingly through his hair. "I'm sorry what happened to me was a catalyst of a bad kind for you. Just know with absolute certainty that no matter what happens to me I will _always_ do everything in my power to make it back to you. Alright?"

He leaned in and kissed her hungrily, the near desperation she could feel just under the surface still plaguing him making her want to cry at his pain. She pulled back only because a throat cleared and interrupted the moment.

"Sorry to interrupt, but everyone's anxious to get home and since Emily is all signed out and I have the instructions for her care to pass on, we were hoping we could head off now?"

Emily smiled at Dave. "You aren't the only one anxious to get home. I just want to sleep for a week. Just let me go to the toilet and we can go."

Dave waited until she was in the small bathroom adjoining the room before he hissed quietly, "You didn't tell her about Toby and Jack being missing and Carrie being dead, did you?"

He shook his head tiredly. "The doctor clearly said no stress for the next few weeks."

"You don't think finding out about this later, like when you can't actually take her home because your place is still a crime scene, isn't going to stress her out? It'll not only stress her out, but you'll be in the dog house right when she needs your strength the most."

He shoved his hands through his hair and sighed. "Fine, alright. I'll tell her once we've taken off."

"I hope so, because if you don't, she's going to get it out of someone else when they discuss what has happened or when Garcia calls in with the next update."

"You're all tense again. Really Dave, the entire purpose of asking you to leave the room was so that I could get Aaron to relax a little and now you've gone and undone what I did."

"Sorry Emily. Kelly mentioned that you were worried about Jack back at the station."

She sighed heavily. "I just feel like there is something seriously wrong is all; I'll do my best to let it go for now. I'm sure everything is fine."

"Mention it again when we get on the plane. For now, I think we have all had more than enough of this place and all we want to do is go home."

She studied them both suspiciously for a minute, saw that they weren't going to budge and sighed tiredly. "I'll ask again later. Homeward we go."

They joined the rest of the team and she answered their questions about her condition. She asked Dave about her instructions from the doctor and then she fell silent and tuned out the conversation.

The pain in her lower back was worse than ever and the occasional rippling pain across her abdomen was gaining in intensity and frequency. She was certain she was in labour but she was just as certain that she didn't want to be stuck in Kansas while she had the baby and even more certain that not only Aaron but the rest of her team was keeping something major about Jack secret from her. So she kept quiet, taking a little comfort from the strong movements she still felt in her womb and she waited for someone to say something that would give her a clue about what exactly was going on.

New Section-

"_What_ did you just say?"

Aaron shot Derek a dirty look and turned to his wife, who was currently staring at him with such animosity that he actually considered taking a step back for safety's sake.

"Say it again because I don't think I heard it clearly the first time."

"Emily please calm down. I was going to tell you once we were in the air."

"Don't you dare tell me to calm down. I _knew_ something was wrong with Jack and you brushed it off and said it could wait and now I find out he's been missing for over 24 hours? Either I am your wife and Jack's mother and therefore worthy of being informed that my son is missing or…or"

She buried her face in Aaron's shoulder even as she hit him with a balled fist and sobbed at the thoughts roiling through her head. As an FBI profiler, she knew what happened to most children after 24 hours at the hands of an unsub. Just the thought of what could be happening to Jack made her ill.

She pushed back and whispered, "Do we know anything yet?"

"We know who took him and I know from Strauss that he won't get out of the city with either our son _or_ Toby."

As that knowledge sunk home, another more poisonous thought entered her mind. "What happened to Carrie."

Watching him close his eyes she suddenly realised that the worst had happened. "I'm going to be sick."

He scooped her up and rushed her onto the plane, stayed with her and soothed her while she vomited and then sent JJ in to help her clean up while he went to deal with the takeoff.

"Carrie's dead, isn't she JJ? That bastard of a husband got her while she was alone and vulnerable and then he took my son too?"

"I'm afraid so honey. Don't be mad at Hotch. He was dealing with the murder investigation, us being held hostage and Jack and Toby being missing with all else that happened back home. He isn't exactly in his right mind at the moment. That's why it was Kelly and Dave coming in to rescue us and not him."

"Tell me what else there is to deal with. _All_ of it this time; leave nothing out."

She listened as the pain in her abdomen attempted to steal her breath. As JJ was finishing up her summary, she flinched at a particularly strong pain.

"Are you alright? You aren't in labour are you?"

She shook her head. She hated lying, but after what she'd just heard, there was no way she wanted to be stuck in Kansas any longer than she had to be. "I doubt it. I wrenched my back pretty hard dodging the bullets and if I move the wrong way it pulls pretty hard. I'll take a painkiller and lie down for the duration of the flight. Just don't mention it to Aaron; he doesn't need anything else to worry about and it isn't that major."

JJ looked at her friend suspiciously but let it go as Emily attempted to manoeuvre out of the miniscule bathroom to return to the main part of the plane. She watched over her until she was tucked in on one of the couches for a nap before joining the rest of her team for an update on the situation back home.

Over the next half hour, planning was intense and everyone's input was crucial with concentration a must as they discussed the quickest way to find Jack and Toby and bring them home. But every now and then, she flicked a look at Emily and just knew that there was more to what she was going through than they all realised.

"What's wrong JJ?"

She started in surprise as Hotch's voice penetrated her thought processes. She hesitated before holding up a finger and moving to the couch where Emily lay. Even as she got there, she noticed the flinch, the slight tightening of muscles around the other woman's mouth and the way her legs tucked up just slightly. Crouching down, she gently shook her awake.

"Hey honey, you feeling alright?"

Emily looked at her blearily and didn't respond but seconds later the process started again and this time was accompanied by a gasp of pain.

JJ tsked and murmured, "We'll discuss you lying to me later." She stood and turned to the group. "Emily's in labour; I recognised the signs but it took me a while to compute because I had other things on my mind. We either need to keep going forward and hope the baby takes a while to come or we turn around and go back."

"No; no going back. If you try to turn the plane around I'll do something drastic. I don't know what yet but I will."

She tried to get off the couch to make her point but found she couldn't move for the crippling pain suddenly ripping up her insides. As it eased, she found she was being held by Aaron and that she was holding a fistful of his shirt.

"That _hurt_," she snarled softly.

He soothed a hand against her hair. "I was going to ask if this is false labour but I'm guessing from your pain that we aren't getting that lucky."

She started to cry as the others began a panicked discussion about who was delivering the baby on the plane if she didn't make it all the way back to Virginia.

"I'm sorry Aaron, so sorry."

"Shh baby, you have nothing to be sorry about."

"Yes I do. Jack's missing and now I'm in labour. I won't be able to help you look for him and on top of that you're going to end up meeting your little girl under stressful circumstances. And what if something goes wrong with all this. Then you have to deal with me having a health crisis too; it's so incredibly unfair."

He rocked her gently as she cried and wondered if he'd make it through the day. Surely there was nothing else that could possibly go wrong...

End-

**A/N: Well now (looks from side to side to see if anyone is about and then smiles evily as she rubs her hands together with glee), loads more could **_**possibly**_** go wrong...**

**On a lighter note, reviews give me warm fuzzies and brighten up my day...(hint hint)**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Sorry; I know I was touting the virtues of my ****new mini laptop and promising that you'd get chapter updates more frequently, but my weekend was crazy and I wasn't feeling that well for half of it anyway so this chapter just didn't really happen until last night. Then the issue belongs with the upload page on ; otherwise this would have been out last.**

**So thank you for your patience and here it is and hopefully it lives up to reviews.**

**Speaking of reviews,**** I've been blown away by how generous everyone has been in what they have been saying about my work. I definitely want to thank everyone who has added me to their author or story updates; but reviewers are my favourites by far. Welcome to GiftedGurl3393 who reviewed for the first time and massive thanks to fanficlover, Hazmatt and babygurl0506 for totally cheering me up and sticking with me even though my mind is so totally weird and twisted. I promise there is sunshine ahead for the Hotchner's; it's just taking a little longer to get there than I thought it would.**

**Right; now that I have expressed my gratitude (you all rock!) I am apologising in advance for any mistakes I make as I bring the newest little Hotchner into the world. I've never had a baby before so I know I will probably misrepresent something so please forgive me now.**

**This chapter gets a little dark in places so please heed the M rating.**

Silence - Chapter 4

Jack looked at his best friend and cried because there was nothing he could do. The mean man Toby called father had come down and carried him out of the basement they were being held in. Then he'd come back in and dumped Toby in a heap across the room before turning to him with the meanest look he'd ever seen. Even the man who had killed his mummy had pretended to be nice so as not to scare him but this man didn't even seem to care..

He'd thought for a minute that he was going to end up like Toby but the mean man had only hit him once and tied him to the wall by a very short rope around his neck. Only now he couldn't get to his friend to help him and he couldn't breathe properly and he also couldn't sit down all the way without choking and his whole face hurt where he'd been hit and he couldn't see properly out of one eye. He'd heard the man leave the house and drive off in the truck he'd brought them here in and now it was just him and Toby...

"Toby, please wake up. Toby!"

He heard a whimper from his friend but he didn't see any movement and that wasn't right. Toby had been just lying there for hours; surely he should be waking up now if he wasn't that badly hurt.

"Daddy, please hurry."

New Section-

They had faced down the scariest bad guys in history and had survived some pretty bad shit besides but when Emily Hotchner screamed for the first time as pain threatened to rip her in half, every male on the plane flinched in fear.

"I nominate JJ to deliver the baby because she's already had one."

As JJ shot Reid a dirty look, Aaron said from where he knelt beside his wife, "By default that means that either Morgan or I could do it because our wives have already had children."

The panicked look on Derek's face made everyone laugh and even Emily smiled slightly as she said softly, "I don't think either Morgan or I want his face down that end of my anatomy. Besides that, I can make it back to Virgi..."

Her words cut off as another contraction hit and Aaron suddenly wondered if it wasn't a bad thing that he'd been absent for the birth of his son if this was what he had to look forward to in the near future.

"I don't like this at all. She's having a contraction every minute and if the noises and facial expressions are anything to go by, it's getting rapidly worse. We may not have as long as you'd like," JJ said worriedly.

Kelly nodded agreement and sighed with soft relief as Brad's voice filled her ear. "Hey beautiful. How's my favourite FBI profiler?"

"I'm great and the case is over. Emily's not so great. I need to speak to someone about what to do with a woman in labour."

"Ah. Panic stations is it? Just take her to the hospital and let them handle it."

"We will, when we land and then only if she doesn't have the baby in the next hour and a bit."

"Shit."

"That sums it up just perfectly darling. So do you know anyone?"

"I'm taking a walk right now to maternity. I know that someone needs to check how dilated she is if they haven't already."

"Someone needs to check how dilated Emily is," she told the plane at large as she listened to her husband try to track down a woman by the name of Elizabeth. She watched as everyone pointed at someone else and rolled her eyes. "If no one volunteers, I'll do it."

"I would, but I don't think I'm getting my hand back anytime soon. Sweetheart, is it alright if Kelly checks on your dilation."

For several long seconds there was no response and then Emily screamed long and loud, the sound petering out into a sob as she nodded.

"It feels like I need to push already but surely it's too soon..."

"Don't push!" was shouted by just about everyone on the plane.

Dave returned from the cockpit and looked about at the more evident panic. "I don't know what I missed just now, but the pilot's are alerted to what's happening back here and have already radioed in for an ambulance to be waiting when we land. We've also been cleared for an emergency landing which means we get precedence over another flight as long as they aren't out of fuel."

"Emily says she needs to push and Kelly's checking her dilation. I think I need to sit down before I pass out."

Being able to tease Reid lightened the mood in the plane as Kelly did as she'd volunteered. Then she gulped as she reached out for the phone she'd handed into JJ's keeping and put it on speakerphone.

"You there babe? How soon til you find this Elizabeth lady?"

"She's at lunch at the moment so I'm trying to track down one of her colleagues but all I can find are students. How dilated is she?"

"I couldn't really tell because I got distracted by the head of hair I could see crowning. She said she needed to push and she isn't kidding; the baby's coming now!"

Half a dozen voices shouted all at once as the tension escalated and the whole noise was drowned out by another pained scream.

New Section-

"Any chance you've found Vincent Whitman yet?"

"Not yet. I just came to tell you the Tableton case is now closed and everyone is back where they are supposed to be."

"Excellent news, but please focus on the Whitman case now; I don't want to ruin their lives any more than they have been by drawing this out any longer than it has to be."

"Yes sir."

New Section-

"I vote for Kelly delivering the baby because her husbands' a doctor and she was in her right mind enough to call him for help," JJ piped up suddenly.

"And what will you be doing instead?" Kelly demanded as she placed her hands on her hips and glared at her friend.

"I'll be holding the phone close by where you can hear Brad or someone else clearly."

"Works for me," Derek declared firmly and everyone nodded agreement.

"You did say once that you always wanted to know what it was like to deliver a baby," Brad added from the other end of the phone line.

"I was being facetious," she shouted in exasperation. When everyone just looked at her expectantly, she sighed in defeat and muttered, "I hate you all."

"Hate all you want as long as it's not us down that end," Dave added.

"We need scissors, don't we babe?"

"Yes. In addition to scissors, you'll need something to tie the cord with before cutting, some warm water to clean off the baby with and a warm blanket; zap it in the microwave, it won't hurt. How premmie is the baby?"

"She'll be five weeks early," Aaron said as he gently stroked Emily's hair. The fear in her eyes cut him far deeper than any of her screams had so far.

"Any chance you have oxygen on board?"

"We do," JJ affirmed.

"Great, get it ready. If she isn't breathing she may need a boost to get started. Also, having a baby on the plane may see Emily requiring it a bit herself so keep it handy."

"Now Kel, you said you can see the head. How far out is it? Can you check to feel if the umbilical cord is wrapped around her neck? The rest of you need to be gathering supplies while she's checking on that."

Seconds later, Reid yelped. "I am not going down to get the blanket! Get someone else to do it. I may not see anything on the way there but I sure as hell don't want to see anything on the way back."

"Wimp," Derek teased.

"Are _you_ going for the blanket?" JJ demanded crossly.

"Whoever's going for the blanket should go quickly. This definitely isn't going to take as long as we'd like it to."

"Can Emily hear me?" Brad interrupted.

Emily nodded as her eyes closed and her back arched against the pain.

"She can Brad; did you track down Elizabeth?"

"She's off site for lunch and isn't picking up her phone or answering her pager and everyone else is busy so you're stuck with me. Be glad I did two rotations through Obstetrics when I was in training and that I actually remember what I'm doing.

"Now Emily? The next time a contraction hits, you're going to push. Someone needs to count down from ten to one and you're going to push for as long as they are counting and then you're going to stop and pant while I consult with Kelly. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"Yes," she whimpered as the pain built again. "It's coming."

"Who's counting?"

"I will," Dave said.

"Then count, nice and loud; go!"

As Dave counted, Emily screamed and strained and Aaron wondered if his hands were going to be in one piece when this was over.

When Dave got to one and Aaron reminded his exhausted wife to pant and not push, her eyes opened and she glared at him. She didn't say anything and she didn't really need to and he was too busy being thankful she wasn't cursing at him to worry about the dislike he saw in her eyes as he kissed her temple and told her how well she was doing.

Then the process repeated itself. By this time, only Dave, JJ and Kelly were anywhere nearby. Derek and Reid had retreated to the far end of the plane.

"You know Morgan, surely you should have anticipated this being the expected response from a woman giving birth and would be here helping out. Where's your backbone?"

"Well and truly back in Kansas. Jordan had drugs JJ, lots and lots of drugs and they actually worked on her. This is completely out of my comfort zone I don't even want to go there."

JJ opened her mouth to reply when the counting and pushing process happened again and suddenly Kelly called in a panicky voice, "I need a little help here. One of you stop being wimpy and get over here and help me. And bring the oxygen with you."

While Derek and Reid were trying to push the other one forward enough to do what needed to be done, JJ and Dave exchanged a look and Dave stepped forward to take the phone from the media liaison so she could help out.

"She's not crying. Why isn't she crying? Aaron?" The painful pleading in Emily's voice as she started to cry brought silence to the plane as JJ and Kelly worked together as Brad talked them through what to do.

Long seconds passed and even the girls were beginning to worry a bit because of how very little the child was when she suddenly took a coughing breath and let out a watery cry. The cheer everyone let up made her cry harder but no one was complaining as Kelly stood with the blanket covered bundle and walked down to where her parents were anxiously waiting to meet her.

"I know you already know but I have to say it because I've always wanted to say it; it's a girl!"

Emily wanted to push up into a sitting position in order to see her longed-for daughter sooner than she would get to lying down but found she didn't have the energy. Even as she let her body sink back into the numerous cushions that had been placed for her support, a deep, ripping pain shot through her; gone so fast she could only gasp at the suddenness of it. She had a sudden premonition that something had just gone terribly, terribly wrong.

"Aaron," she whispered as he stood to reach out for his daughter. He didn't hear her and as her vision started to spot she felt the contractions start all over again and wondered if the afterbirth would even hurt after the pain she'd just been through.

"Ah, before everyone gets too excited, we have a serious problem developing."

"What kind of problem?" Aaron asked, immediately anxious as he paused in the act of accepting his daughter into his waiting arms.

"The kind where there's blood."

Kelly handed him the baby and turned back to the foot of the couch and where JJ was beginning to show fear as she waved her bloodied hands about nervously.

Brad's sigh of relief cut through some of the panic put out by those who couldn't actually see what the girls could.

"A bit of blood is normal in childbirth and isn't anything to worried about."

"And if blood's gushing out?" Kelly demanded of her husband.

There was a momentary pause before Brad replied.

"Shit! How long until you land?"

Derek ran into the cockpit and came out seconds later. "They said ten minutes, possibly eight."

"Shit."

End-

**A/N: I know you're all thinking 'Come on; give them a break!'. And I will, eventually. I'm just not done messing with their lives**** yet.**

**As always, just a reminder that I love reviews so please, even if it's just a single line, let me know what you think. **


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: I have no excuses good enou****gh for the delay in getting this chapter out for everyone to see so all I'm going to do is say a huge 'I'M SO SORRY!' for the delay. I hope it was worth the wait.**

**Thanks in abundance to everyone still with me after such a long wait (I cringe every time I think of the date of the last post). To those of you who have just stumbled across my series and to those who have long since added me as an author or my pieces to alert and favourite lists, thank you does not begin to cover it. I started this series on a whim because I had all these ideas tumbling round in my head, not really thinking that it would be as popular as it has been. The only thing better than receiving the many notifications that someone has alerted to my stories or me the author is seeing that I've received a review.**

**Reviewers are my bread and butter; you guys cheer me up when I'm uncertain if something I've put out there is any good, encourage me to not only keep writing but to improve on my skills and just generally make me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside. Many, many millions of thanks to my faithful reviewers, fanficlover, babygurl0506 and Hazmatt for continuing to stick with me through all the highs and lows I put my characters through. Welcome to charleantheresas and Kat-D11 who have reviewed my work for the first time. Feel free to review at any time; you are all noticed and greatly appreciated.**

**Kat-D11, I was a little uncertain about how I was going to work the layout for this chapter until I read your review and liking your suggestion so much, I decided to expand on it just a little and incorporate it into my work. Thank you.**

**The M rating continues and realising suddenly that I haven't printed a disclaimer for ages, I just wanted to take a moment to bemoan the fact that the only parts of this series I actually own are Carrie, Toby, the titles of my work and my storylines. Nothing from the Criminal Minds universe belongs to me or my creative writing streak.**

Silence - Chapter 5

The moments before the plane touched down were tense ones, as Brad had the girls closely monitor Emily's rapidly declining condition. Once they realised that something was seriously wrong, Aaron had lost most of his interest in his new daughter, giving her only a cursory inspection before focusing all of his attention on his much-loved and adored wife who was closing in on death much too rapidly for everyone's peace of mind. So by default, because he had a new son and JJ was busy, Derek ended up cuddling with the newest little Hotchner.

Not that he was paying that much attention to her either. Now that they were almost home, he wanted to see his wife and cuddle his son and just make everything in his world right again; hopefully just by being around and charming the nurses into making Jordan all better faster than they already were.

This wasn't to say she wasn't utterly adorable once she stopped crying. Sure, she was still all red and wrinkly, but she'd only just come out of her mother's womb so she could be forgiven for that. She had all her fingers and toes and a small thatch of dark hair on her little head. Once she was all wrapped up in the blanket, she stopped crying and snuggled into its warmth much as Ben had done just after being forced out into the world and gone to sleep. If she was slightly yellow around the mouth, he wasn't going to worry too much; help was a short step away now and besides, she was still breathing. That definitely had to count for something.

Then the plane was down and rolling rapidly to where they'd stop for the two ambulances he could see waiting for them. He noticed the team of medical experts and equipment standing near one of the vehicles and then he spotted one guy in particular in the group that made him smile just slightly as his relief threatened to overwhelm him.

"Head's up everyone; the cavalry's on its way and it's about to get crowded in here."

New Section-

Dave opened up the door from the inside and quickly stepped to the side. More than anything right now, he needed to be with Teresa, to make sure she was getting better and that she wasn't slipping away from him because he'd gone and been an ass and taken too long to tell her he loved her. But even more than that, he needed to know that Emily, the heart and soul of their BAU team, was going to live to fight another day. If she didn't make it, he didn't know if the team would either.

He was entirely relieved to see Brad rush through the door with a large red box, followed closely by a woman and a man in nurse's uniforms also carrying boxes and followed by an older woman who took one look at the scene and said, "We need to clear some people out of here."

Brad nodded agreement but said nothing as he assisted the nurses in getting several bags of blood hooked into a needle in Emily's arm.

"Anyone not bleeding to death needs to leave this plane yesterday."

"What about metaphorical bleeding," Dave muttered to no one in particular as he looked at the panicked look on his boss's face at the thought of leaving Emily's side.

"If that's the newborn, head immediately to the ambulance on your right as you're coming out of the door. They have an incubator for her and they'll take her immediately to the children's hospital."

"No!" Aaron shouted and everyone turned to gape at him in shock. "If she's at the children's hospital and Emily isn't, how am I meant to see them both equally and still find Jack? Send her to the same hospital Emily's going to."

The older woman sighed. "Fine; tell the paramedics I said to do the APGAR test here before they leave; if she scores 4 and above, she can go to the adult's hospital. Otherwise she has to go to the children's hospital because she may need more specialised care than they can give. And no arguments Mr Hotchner; I'm in charge here and you aren't thinking straight.

"Now, we need to save Emily's life and to do that, we are going to need to operate here. It's risky, but I doubt she'll make it even as far as the ambulance parked outside. Is it alright if we operate here?"

New Section-

What a stupid question. Is it alright? _Nothing_ was alright and nothing might ever be alright ever again if Emily didn't make it.

Most people didn't realise that Austin wasn't the only one he went to when he needed advice on something important that he couldn't box up or compartmentalise all by himself.

Reid hadn't been too sure about Emily Prentiss when she first joined their team. She was adventurous with a wicked sense of humour, that was for sure, but she also seemed to have a deep emotional calm that seemed entirely at odds with someone trying to live with the stresses of this job; he'd hated her for it simply because that calm was frequently outside of his own control.

Then Henkel happened and she showed that she cared by butting into his personal issues and sharing her opinions and while he'd known subconsciously that she'd just wanted to help and was concerned for his wellbeing, he'd hated her even more and had pushed her away.

By the time he'd come through that particular storm and come out battered and bruised but alive on the other side, he definitely had a greater understanding of, and respect for, the woman Garcia had termed Superwoman. She was simply a super woman who happened to be good at everything she put her mind to. And she hadn't held a grudge because he'd pushed her away. She'd simply let him back in as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened and that simple acceptance had gone a long way to mending what still felt broken in his soul; there were simply no words to describe his gratitude not only for that moment but for all the others over the years as she supported him in whatever way she could.

And now she was dying; bleeding out in the act of giving life and he somehow doubted that the tiny new scrap of humanity now exiting the plane in Morgan's arms was going to be entirely forgiven by _anyone_ if her mother didn't make it through _this_ storm.

So no, nothing was alright.

New Section-

"I absolutely hate this, you realise that Elizabeth? I hate that it is this woman we're cutting into."

"Focus Brad. I know she's a friend but if you let your feelings get in the way she'll die and then you'll die because her husband will murder you and then he'll probably die because Kelly will probably murder him for murdering you."

"The never-ending cycle," he murmured distractedly as he pulled her skin aside to expose the inner workings of this remarkable woman's insides. It was currently a mess and while the where of where the blood was coming from wasn't immediately obvious, something else was.

"Elizabeth…"

"I see it. Retract that there and then step back. I'll get this and you can deal with the bleeding once you have more room to see what you need to find."

"I wonder how this slipped through. She was having ultrasounds weekly since the 8-week marker."

"Either their equipment is faulty, their doctor is incompetent or this…this little one is already a…mistress at hiding."

"Actually, I got a brief look at her sister as I went past. I think you'll find the second-born is bigger than her big sister."

"You think she was hiding the other baby?"

"That would be my guess. She's near full-sized; the other one wasn't. I'm surprised that her sister came out first; normally it's the other way around with multiple births."

"Well, no matter. She appears to be doing alright and while she's a little jaundiced, that isn't anything that can't be easily remedied with some time under lights. I'll take her out and hopefully the other ambulance hasn't left yet and can take her also."

Brad nodded and muttered, "Don't take too long. I'm going to need your hands on this one."

She smiled just slightly and shook her head as she stood. The entire female staff had been all aflutter when they'd met the new surgical registrar. The man was not only brilliant but drop-dead-gorgeous and kind to-boot. She hadn't been the only one to sigh in disappointment to realise he also had a wife he utterly adored. His only fault that she could see is that he had a one track mind where saving lives was concerned; while most doctors could multitask and chat while they worked, he didn't choose to, though she was certain he could.

She stepped out of the plane and walked across the tarmac, glad that the ambulance appeared to still be present. She stopped beside Supervisory Special Agent Aaron Hotchner and sighed internally. Here was yet another example of an extremely gorgeous man who was obviously devoted to his wife. Now why couldn't _she_ have found one of those in her youth?

"Mr Hotchner?"

"How's Emily?" he asked anxiously. She was concerned to note there was a slightly glassy look to his eyes, he was incredibly pale and his breathing was far too rapid to be good for him.

"She's still holding on. When we opened her up to find and stop the bleeding we found this little girl hiding there. I believe she belongs to you."

He just stared at her blankly, with almost no reaction beyond a slight hitch to his breathing. An outrageously dressed blonde walked up and cooed.

"Ooh, two new little Hotchner's. That's just too naughty _and_ too yummy at the same time to comprehend. Come on Superman; we'll go to the hospital with them and that way you'll be ready when Superwoman comes to join us."

The blonde shot her a wink and steered the man towards one of the cars. The older man who'd opened up the plane for her walked up and stopped briefly.

"We'll see if we can get him treated for shock." He nodded to the baby. "They really just had twins?"

"Yes. I'm going to hand her to the now impatiently waiting medic I can see and they'll take both girls to the hospital for treatment. The other ambulance will stay until we're done with Emily."

"Just so we know how hard to batten down the hatches, what are Emily's chances?"

Elizabeth sighed. "Warn whoever looks him over that they might be treating a soon-to-be widower. I definitely can't guarantee more than if Mrs Hotchner actually _survives_ it'll be a miracle of God I can't explain."

"Elizabeth! I need you immediately!"

"Can you take her?"

"Of course. Please do everything you can; Emily's incredibly special to a lot of people."

She nodded her understanding and turned to rush back to the plane.

New Section-

"We got Vincent Whitman! He's just been picked up on a road leading into the countryside towards …."

"Do we have the children yet?"

"No, not yet."

"Damnit all to hell!"

New Section-

Will watched the car drive off with the closed-mouthed, scum-of-the-earth, son-of-a-bitch in it and cursed a blue streak. The man wouldn't admit to more than seeing 'the little brats' run off after Carrie tackled him but he knew that bastard knew where Jack and Toby were. The man had that look about him and there had been more than just him wanting to wipe that smirk off this creeps' face. But he'd leave the interrogation to the FBI to handle and just hope that his wife's boss was otherwise occupied. Otherwise Vincent Whitman would end up as a very dead man and Hotch would end up in jail for the rest of his life.

Agents and police moved busily about him, collecting evidence and making sure no clues were overlooked. Jack and Toby had been missing for almost three days now and even though he wasn't a behavioural profiler, he _was_ a father and he _knew_ what three days could do to a child's body if it went without food and water. Though children were more than resilient, there was always only so much their smaller bodies could take before enough was far too much.

But he refused to think he would be looking for bodies. That would just be too cruel.

He walked back to the bend in the road that the rusted green pickup had taken too fast before pitching into a tree and stared out at rolling green hills dotted with farmhouses as his mind raced too fast to fully comprehend clearly as he thought about what their next move should be.

"Mr LaMontagne? We just received word that Whitman owns a farmhouse a couple of miles down this road. We're going to check it out."

He nodded agreement and followed the agent back to his vehicle. No policy in the books allowed for a civilian to be along on this particular hunt, but Jack was his honorary nephew through JJ and no one had been willing to argue with him about this once they got a look at his face. Then too, they all knew that if the boys were found alive that a familiar face would lessen the trauma a bit when they were rescued. He didn't want to think about what would happen if the boys were found already dead…

He watched the countryside roll by and prayed they wouldn't be too late for this particular rescue.

New Section-

Aaron knew there was something vitally important he needed to be keeping an eye on and something equally as important that he needed to be doing; he just couldn't remember what. Ever since that tough-as-nails lady in the nurses' uniform had stuck the needle in his arm, everything just slid away from his mental grasp. The only thing he was certain of was that he was drowning in sorrow and he was alone in this bleak land within his head for the first time in years. He knew he wasn't meant to be alone but for the life of him he just couldn't remember who else was supposed to be there with him bringing the sunshine to the desolate landscape he could see in all directions.

He turned his head to look at the blonde listening intently to something the woman was saying. He knew he should know her, but even that was beyond his capability of recognition at that moment. He turned his head the other way and looked out the window as tears slid silently down his cheeks.

New Section-

Garcia sighed as her optimism plummeted to an all-time low in the wake of the nurse's words. She started as a hand touched her shoulder and whipped around with a hand to her suddenly racing heart to see her chocolate-coloured Adonis standing within arms reach and offering a hug. She took him up on the offer with another soft sigh.

"How bad is it?"

"He's in deep shock and doesn't appear to comprehend anything. The doctor will be ordering him to see a psychiatrist before he is released which I just know is going to go down like a tonne of bricks. He's been sedated for the moment but I think the worst of it all is that he's crying and this isn't something I've seen him do at any time except when Haley died. It's like he's just given up on a miracle happening.

"Add to that one of my best friends is dying as we speak and I'm terrified we won't survive this particular tragedy."

He held her tight and soothed her with soft, meaningless words until she was calm again.

She shot him a weak version of her usual teasing smile and lightly poked his arm. "I won't ask if you've already been by to see Jordan but I _will_ ask you how she is."

He smiled warmly as he thought of his wife. "She's doing better. She woke up briefly while I was in there with her and demanded answers to what exactly happened. She seemed to understand what I was saying and she asked about Ben. I told her that her parent's were absolutely spoiling their grandson while they watched over him and she smiled with relief and went back to sleep. Her doctor arrived a minute later and assured me that she would make a full recovery in time."

"I'm so glad to hear it. Since Superman has had his wings temporarily clipped, let's go see if Emily's arrived yet and check on JJ. I know she wasn't doing so well on the drive over here."

"Hmm, good idea. I passed her a few minutes ago and she looked like she was close to breaking down as she sat in the waiting room waiting for news."

New Section-

Kelly leaned against the wall across from the entrance to the waiting room and alternated between anxious looks at the door for news on Emily and concerned glances at JJ.

The pretty young media liaison had spoken with FBI headquarters, accepting the news that they _might_ have something to report shortly and urging them to call with news as soon as they had it. Then Garcia had swept in with Henry and dumped the little boy back on his mother so that she could go and deal with the breakdown their boss was having. For long minutes, JJ had sat there and rocked slightly as she held her son just a little too tightly for comfort. Then he'd started shrieking that she was hurting him and she'd seemed to come to her surroundings with a start. She'd soothed her son as a mother should and set him on the floor with a colouring book and crayons.

Then she'd gotten up and walked to the window and was now staring out it at the wild Summer storm that had started up only a minute after they arrived at the hospital but Kelly doubted strongly that JJ was seeing much of anything as Derek and Garcia returned to the room.

New Section-

JJ watched the rain fall and questioned whether crying would make the sick feeling in her stomach go away or if it would just increase the heaviness she was feeling.

This was all her fault. Even knowing that Will and Garcia were here and working overtime to find Jack and Toby, she'd ignored her instincts when they'd screamed at her that Emily was in labour. She was her best friend and the older sister she'd always wished she'd still had after her own sister committed suicide and she'd just ignored that insistent little voice that said she was lying about her labour in favour of getting home so she could get a hug from Will after being shot at and threatened at gunpoint.

Her internal laughter was filled with bitterness and pain. Sure, she'd eventually get her hug but the penalty was going to end up being Emily's life and quite possibly Hotch's sanity as well. And for what? Being home a day or two earlier than they would have been if she'd insisted they take Emily back to the hospital to be on the safe side? If Emily had been in the hospital when she started bleeding, they would have been able to get her straight into surgery and the outcome would be vastly different to what she'd just been a party to. Now all she could see was blood, despite having spent almost ten minutes scrubbing her hands clean.

She let out a startled shriek as hands came to rest on her shoulders, her instincts screaming to the fore as she attempted to elbow the person behind her. Whoever it was must have seen this coming however and her elbow met empty air as she was spun around. She found she was looking into Morgan's eyes and she noted that he was trying to tell her something as his hands came up to cup her face firmly. She shook her head in an attempt to wipe out the roaring sound in her head and his words came to her in broken sections, as if he stood a long way off with a strong wind stealing his words instead of right in front of her.

"…down Jayje. Just breathe…deep for me. Kel…long?"

As she tried to focus on what Derek was saying she found that everything was sliding through her grasp like water, incomprehensible as the roaring grew louder still and with a tidal wave of red, red blood rising up to drown her, her world went dark.

End-

**A/N:**** I promise to have the next chapter out sometime in the next two days. I seriously doubt anything will get in the way of this promise so I'll be back again shortly.**

**Thanks again to all who are still with me; I love and adore you all.**

**I know I haven't really earned it, but please, **_**please**_** review. I'd love to know what you think of my work.**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: ****I don't really have anything to say here beyond letting you know this chapter will be a little shorter than the others, so I'm just going to skip straight to my awesome fans.**

**Many thanks to babygurl0506 who reviewed chapter 5 so fast it made my head spin. **** I have to admit I bounced a little in my seat in excitement to see a review pop up so fast after such a long posting gap. You rock! Thanks also to fanficlover; your review totally made my morning, particularly since I don't think I earned the welcome back after being so naughty for so long.**

**I would like to extend a welcome to reviewing NPH to PrincessHotch and a warm welcome to eboneya, who reviewed one of my pieces for the first time. You'll notice that this post is within the two days I promised but considering where I'm leaving this piece (please don't hate me), I'm not sure that's such a plus, particularly with such a busy weekend in front of me.**

**Just a reminder that this piece is rated M for a very good reason and should be read with caution for the slightly graphic nature of it.**

Silence – Chapter 6

Stepping through the front door of the property Vincent Whitman owned, Will fought warring factions in his head. One faction was telling him to throw up over the atrocious smell working it's way through his sinuses, another was suggesting passing out would be a good way to deal with what he was seeing and yet another faction was urging him to suck it up and get his ass through the door and into the property before anything more wrong than what it already was occurred.

The place was an absolute pigsty and even that was an understatement of epic proportions. It looked like a bomb had gone off on the inside of the house while leaving the structure intact. Food was everywhere, most of it in one way or another decayed and rotting where it lay and there were pests and rodents everywhere taking advantage of the feast before them. It wasn't just the food though; the walls were covered with stains in varying shades and freshness (some that appeared to be eating away at the wallpaper underneath), there was rubbish and junk everywhere and the carpet squelched wetly underfoot and released smells of urine and other fluids he didn't even want to think about.

"Are you sure this is Whitman's place? It reeks of abandonment to me, like a squatter's joint gone horribly wrong."

"We double-checked the address after the first officer went through the door and reported this disaster awaited us and this is definitely it. Unfortunately for us," he added in a mutter before raising his voice to shout, "Spread out and search the place. Be thorough, even if you struggle with the smell and the mess. Remember, the faster we search the place from top to bottom, the faster we can leave it behind us and clean off."

The guys spread out as they joked about a couple of fellow officers on other duties that day with colds that would be perfect for working in these kinds of conditions.

Will smiled slightly at the teasing and joking before sighing at the injustice of it all and stepped forward with a grimace. No way was JJ letting him anywhere near her smelling like this place; he'd definitely need to stop off home first before going to see her at the hospital. He took a moment to wonder how Emily was doing and how his wife was holding up under the strain of her best friend being so ill before he pushed it aside and drew his focus back to looking for two innocent, fragile little boys.

He noted a door nearby that was closed and that there were no longer any officers in sight of him in the front hall. He could hear people further in the house, but no one had thought to check this door, or perhaps they were leaving it til last because everyone knew your basement was where you stored the things you didn't want anyone else to see and _no one_ wanted to think about what else might be here among this atrocious mess.

He opened the door and flicked the light switch as he noted how very weak the stairs looked. There were holes all through the wood and a stair about a third of the way down looked as if there were more holes than wood to it. Other stairs were bowed inwards and many had large cracks in the surface of the wood. He thought briefly about calling one of the smaller, lighter-boned female officers to come and search this basement but decided it wasn't worth waiting for and carefully stepped forward. He slowly made his way down far enough to peer under the level of the floor and what he saw stopped his heart and squeezed it so tight he thought it might never re-inflate.

"I've found 'em! Get the medics down here as fast as you can!"

Shouts and the sound of every officer in the house converging on this room followed him as he ignored the groaning and creaking of the stairs under his feet and raced to the bottom and across to where the two little boys were breaking his heart.

Jack had at one stage been hit hard enough to make his face swell up like a melon before being tied up with a rope around his neck and from the way Toby was crouched underneath his body the rope was too short and had constricted his airways, causing him to pass out. Toby was obviously trying to keep Jack up high enough to allow him to breathe but this plan was being foiled because Jack wasn't conscious to help him by sitting up straight. Toby looked at him out of a face that had been beaten black and blue and Will could make out the odd angle of the arm closest to him indicating it was broken even as the boy held it out to him in a pleading gesture.

He lifted Jack off of Toby's back and removed the rope with a snarled curse as he noted how deep the rope had chaffed and cut into the skin around his neck. As Toby slammed into him with a deep, wracking sob, Will wondered if Jack would ever wake up again.

New Section-

Kelly dropped down into the seat beside her husband and leaned over to rest her head on his shoulder. She felt weary inside and out and she hurt more than she knew what to do with it. Nothing was turning out right and everyone was falling apart; the seams splitting open to reveal a wealth of hurt and pain beyond imagining.

JJ and Hotch were on the verge of having breakdowns. Reid, Morgan and Dave were all but glued to the bedsides of the women they loved and seemed uninterested in much else. Garcia had returned to work with a hysterical Henry LaMontagne in tow; the boy hadn't stopped screaming and sobbing since his mother had collapsed. She would do the necessary work but she was seriously thinking the child had the right way to deal with it all and Emily…

"We've done all we can do; now it's up to her and how badly she wants to pull through."

Kelly sighed softly. "And even then it might not be enough."

He sighed too. "Even then…"

New Section-

Susie looked up as an alarm sounded, alerting her to a rapid drop in heart rate in one of the patients in the Intensive Care Unit she ran. She found the correct machine and felt her own heart drop in dismay as she noted the name corresponding to that particular alarm. She got up and jogged down to the room in question and first checked to see if the alarm was being tripped due to a fault in the equipment.

Groaning at the realisation that the alarm was very real and very necessary, she hit the alarm button above the bed and called a code blue to Emily Hotchner's room.

New Section

Brad groaned as his pager went off. All he wanted to do was put his aching head down for an hour while he cuddled up to his wife before he had to return to finish his shift but it appeared that this perfect plan would have to wait.

He looked at the number and the code and might have whimpered if he thought it would do any good. Leaping to his feet with more energy than he knew he really had, he took off down the hall, hit the door to the stairwell hard enough to have it careening straight back at him and took the stairs three at a time as he wondered if the day could get any worse.

New Section-

"_Hi daddy! I've missed you so, soooo much!"_

"_Sweat pea, I always miss you, even when I only saw you a minute before."_

"_Really daddy?" she asked with wide-eyed astonishment._

"_Really sweat pea," he said as he tweaked her nose, causing her to giggle and snuggle closer in his embrace. "But darling, I have to ask; what exactly are you doing here? Don't you have a life to be living and a promise to keep?"_

_She giggled and pulled back. "Silly daddy; didn't you just say you missed me? If you missed me, why are you trying to get rid of me so fast?"_

_The gentle smile on his face faded and he gently set her back from him so he could crouch down and get eye to eye with her. She watched this with wide eyes because daddy only did this when it was a very serious matter to be discussed._

"_Emily, do you remember what you were doing before I found you here?"_

_She frowned in concentration, and then shied away from the thoughts trying to press closer as pain walked before them._

"_No daddy, it hurts too much to remember."_

_He lifted a hand and pushed back a curl. "I know it hurts Emily but it is so important for you to remember this right now. Know that I will be right here with you, that I think you are a very brave young lady, and push through the pain to the memory. Do this for me?"_

_She sighed in defeat as her shoulders slumped and nodded. She closed her eyes and pushed at the pain waiting there for her. If anyone else had asked her to do this, she would have laughed and told them not to be silly. But daddy was the wisest man she'd ever known and he wouldn't ask her to do it if it wasn't vitally important. That didn't mean it wasn't going to hurt though or that she would like doing it._

_She poked the pain again harder and it exploded around her in a rush of blood and screaming and the sure knowledge that she couldn't stay here with daddy because they needed her more and she had promised that she would always try to go back._

_She opened her eyes and burst into tears as the pain broke around her again, bringing with it more screaming and a stronger sense of wrongness._

"_Daddy, I'm scared. Don't leave me."_

_He swept her up in a tight hug, anchoring her as it came again, harder than before; strong enough to wrench her from his arms. She screamed as she tried to get back to him and he called out after her, "Be brave sweat pea, and know that I am so proud of you and that I am always with you and that I love you. Always!"_

New Section-

"Damnit Emily, stay with me! Charge again!"

The world had narrowed down to this moment in time, this room, and the woman lying so still on the bed before him.

"Charged!"

"Clear!" He checked everyone briefly and then pressed the paddles of the defibrillator against the bright orange stickers on Emily's chest and pressed the button again.

He was getting sick of that long continuous beep.

"Doctor, maybe we should…"

"Charge again!" He said with a ferocious glare at the nurse who had been trying to suggest he give up on this courageous woman. "Get me ten mils of adrenalin, stat!"

He plunged the syringe directly into her chest when it was handed to him and shocked her again.

Then he waited, hoping against hope that this would be enough. He'd been trying to bring her back for almost an hour; anything more would just end up being too much and might even cause permanent damage if he did get her back enough for her to fight the rest of the way back by herself.

"Come on Emily, your men need you. Come on!"

End-

**A/N:**** I know, I know, I'm a wicked, naughty author to leave you on several cliff edges like this one and the one at the start with the boys. And unfortunately for you all, I really do have a busy weekend in front of me. I'm going to attempt to get the next chapter out by COB tomorrow but if I'm not successful, it might be Sunday evening or even Monday morning before you get the next instalment. Wish me luck. **

**Reviews are my bread and butter and even occasionally make me write faster, so feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you think.**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: After a furious storm of writing, I ****am releasing this piece a good day ahead of schedule. I'm so thrilled by my efforts that I might take a holiday now (just kidding!).**

**Contrary to what I am sure is popular opinion, I don't **_**like**_** making you all suffer or torturing you all with cliff-hangers; they just happen to occur naturally in my universe. But if it helps you at all, this piece isn't ending in a cliff-hanger; it's just ending.**

**Big, big thanks to eboneya who, despite accusing me of causing suffering ;), gave me a huge morale booster to finish this piece as fast as I have. It was greatly appreciated. And welcome to my reviewing world to NicknHotchfan; I look forward to hearing your opinions in the future.**

**Rated M and hopefully not **_**too**_** dark and deep. **

Silence – Chapter 7

JJ sat curled up in the chair before the window and stared at the city lights spread before her. She'd been given a mild sedative that had done wonders for her shattered nerves but she still felt more fragile than she could remember ever feeling before. A kind nurse had phoned and left a message for Will, detailing what had happened and asking him to come round as soon as convenience would allow so that she would have someone there to support her.

She looked down at the ambulance bay as lights flashed into view and watched as a couple of ambulances came screeching to a halt outside the emergency room doors. Doors flew open and staff swarmed the wheeled stretchers as they were moved from the vehicles to the building.

She wondered who would find their lives irrevocably changed this time.

New Section-

Kelly watched her husband stalk past her, the very line of his body a taut string ready to snap as he headed towards the gym. She felt her heart sink through the floor as the implications of his furious tension made themselves known.

"What's wrong with Brad?"

She jumped, startled and turned with a gasp to see Dave, Morgan and Reid standing behind her and as she watched them for several long moments as she attempted to find the words she needed to tell them what she was almost certain of, she saw Garcia and Will walking towards them.

She pointed wordlessly and they turned as the other two arrived.

"We found Jack and Toby."

Kelly moved closer to Garcia and wrapped an arm around the normally-bubbly blonde's shoulders as she cried silently.

Morgan and Dave swore softly and it was Reid who asked quietly, "What happened?"

"Toby's been beaten to within an inch of his life. He has multiple broken bones and internal bleedin' and he's all black and blue. He's been taken to surgery and there's a chance he may yet make it through but it's no guarantee at this stage. Jack wasn't beaten up but he was put against a wall with a rope around his neck and from what we could guess, when he got too tired to stay awake and standin' upright, he fell asleep and collapsed, stranglin' himself in the process 'cause the rope was too short."

Kelly thought about that adorable little miniature version of his father; a bright bundle of sunshine and light to counter his fathers' dark seriousness and started to cry too.

"He's dead then?" Dave asked heavily.

"Not yet. I started CPR even before the medics arrived and they immediately put a tube down his throat to get oxygen into him. They said downstairs he still has brain waves and the machine they put him on is forcin' his heart to beat. He is alive accordin' to the machines but whether he _lives_ is the real big unanswered question of this moment. The other one is, if he somehow pulls through this, will there be any permanent damage."

"Does Hotch know?"

Garcia shook her head and produced a tissue to blow her nose with. "I ran into Will down in the ER when I arrived and he updated me on what had happened to the boys. I was so distraught that I just sat and cried while he showered off the stink…"

"Ask me later and I'll tell you all about it," Will interjected as they shot him querying looks.

"…and then we came up here to find all of you. I haven't had a chance to see Hotch or even tell Will about JJ." She gasped and clapped a hand over her mouth as her eyes widened in horror at her slip-up.

Will frowned at the group as a whole. "What's this about my wife?"

Morgan updated Will on both JJ and Hotch's conditions as Kelly remembered why this night was just getting worse and worse. She turned to walk down the hall and as she turned a corner and entered the ICU wing, she could hear the others walking behind her, talking quietly among themselves.

She whimpered softly as a body in a morgue bag was wheeled into the lift as they passed it. She noted absently that the first room on the left was now vacant as she continued walking and came to an abrupt halt at the window leading into room 3, feeling as if she were a puppet with the strings cut.

"Does anyone else think she has a little more colour in her cheeks?"

Kelly was staggered by the giddy relief swirling through her system as she watched the steady slow beep, beep, beep of the heart rate monitor attached to Emily's chest. She'd been certain that it was Emily that Brad had been called to assist, but he must have had another patient crash just after getting Emily back because she knew the signs for when he'd lost a patient.

She excused herself softly and walked off to find her so sweet and sensitive husband and offer what comfort and solace she could.

New Section-

JJ shivered slightly and thought about going back to bed before deciding she was far too tired to move. Seconds later, she tipped her head back to see Will behind her as he gently rubbed her shoulders.

"It's far too cold in this room for you to be out of bed dressed like that Jayje. Let's get you back to bed shall we?"

She nodded carefully and let him pick her up. Cradled close to him, she noticed that his hair was wet, he was dressed in scrubs and he smelled different to what she was used to.

"What happened to you?"

"We found Jack and Toby in the worst possible place. The only good thing about it was that the basement was mostly clean and the rats hadn't bothered with them because they had enough food in the main areas of the house."

He detailed the rescue and the condition of the boys as he tucked her in under a pile of blankets.

She nodded with relief when he was done. "Have you seen Henry?"

"I have. Garcia is back here at the hospital to support everyone so Henry is currently asleep in Kevin's office back at Headquarters'. He'll bring him over here when he's done for the night or else I'll go and collect him first if I get done before him."

"Okay. How's Hotch and Emily?"

"Hotch is now sleeping off the rest of the sedative they gave him and is in good hands. Emily is holdin' her own. Brad had to respond with a fair amount of force to bring her back after she crashed but she is doing better for it and as long as she continues fighting back, I'm sure she'll recover fully in time."

"That's such good news. Are you staying? Every time I close my eyes I start to drown in her blood but maybe if you are here to guard me while I sleep I can rest a bit. I'm so tired."

"Of course I will chere. You just rest and I'll guard your dreams against nightmares and the like."

He stroked her hair gently until she slept and then settled back in the chair beside her to watch over her, just as he'd promised.

New Section-

Dave stood in the doorway to the hospital room and sighed quietly. The nurse had said Aaron was resting but if this was _rest,_ he really didn't want to know what restlessness was.

The man was probably asleep, but his head thrashed frequently from side to side, there were signs that he'd been crying recently and he was currently mumbling fearfully about finding someone.

He walked forward and sat down in the chair beside the bed. After a brief battle with his own inhibitions, he moved his hand to cover one of his friends'. Seconds later, Aaron's eyes flew open and sought his.

"Dave? I was hoping you were Emily?"

"Sorry to disappoint though if it helps at all, Emily's doing better."

"Really?"

Dave felt his heart squeeze slightly at the little-boy pleading he saw in Aaron's face.

"Yes really. Vincent Whitman is now in custody and Will just returned to the hospital after they found Jack and Toby. Toby is in surgery and Jack has been sent straight to the children's ICU ward. They aren't in the best of shape, but no one has given up yet so we'll just have to wait and see how it turns out."

"Tell me."

Dave detailed everything he knew and watched with mounting alarm as his boss and friend struggled to comprehend it all. The nurse had told him the sedative would have completely cleared from his system by now so if he was still struggling with all he'd just been told…

Silence fell as he finished his report. He waited for Aaron to demand the chance to go and see Emily and Jack immediately but the man just lay there and stared at the ceiling. Realising that he still had his hand resting over Aaron's, he was about to pull it back when the hand underneath turned to grip his own tightly. He watched his hand for a moment as he squeezed back gently and when he looked up again, he sucked in air as he noticed Aaron was crying again with his eyes closed.

Not knowing quite how to deal with this turn of events, he continued to hold the other man's hand and settled in to wait out the storm.

New Section-

"I wonder if you can get alcohol in this place."

"You thinking of taking up drinking kid?"

"Not at all. But right now, looking at everyone, it couldn't hurt to have something to dull the senses right now. Maybe we should all go home for some sleep."

"Would you consider leaving Austin here on her own?"

Reid didn't answer and Morgan smirked just slightly as the younger man flushed and mumbled something about not wanting her to wake up and be frightened to find herself alone.

Morgan looked the group over and silently admitted that Reid really did have a good idea every now and then. Brad was half asleep in his chair and much more relaxed than he had been but considering both he and Kelly had wet hair he was almost certain that sex had more to do with his current state than anything else he could think of. Kelly was sound asleep and curled up on Brad's lap, her head pillowed on his shoulder. Dave had returned from visiting Hotch with a dark look on his face that clearly told everyone to leave him alone; and they had all done just that. Kevin had arrived with Henry and now sat with Garcia sound asleep against his shoulder. Henry was somewhere upstairs and snuggled in with his mother while his father watched over them both. Reid looked like he'd been awake for a week instead of just over 24 hours and he felt like death warmed over.

On the plus side, Jordan was getting stronger by the minute and he now held Ben all bundled up in his arms, his little weight a greater comfort to him then he would probably ever realise.

Austin had just been settled into a regular ward room and was now sharing with Jordan and the older woman had already been a big help in getting Austin to talk through what had happened.

Teresa had finally woken up and though she hadn't said anything, she had responded positively to stimuli and her neurosurgeon was now positive that she would fully recover, given time.

Toby had made it through surgery but his doctor was only marginally hopeful that he would make it through while Jack's doctor wasn't even slightly hopeful that the little boy would pull through. However Jack hadn't given up yet and as long as he continued to live, his extended family within the BAU would have hope enough for everyone.

Emily also hadn't woken up, but she continued to get stronger and her heart rate was now more akin to what it normally was. Brad admitted that it was still a bit like touch and go, but if she could make it through the rest of the night without crashing again, he said her chances of recovery would go up hugely and they'd probably see her wake up sometime tomorrow.

So they sat around and they waited; they slept and they wished for something stronger to drink than the horrible coffee sludge in front of them. And they hoped that tomorrow would be a far better day than the one they'd just been through.

End-

**A/N:**** Stay tuned to witness my twisty-turny frame of mind and the end of this particular piece.**

**Please review and let me know what you think. You are all greatly appreciated! **


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Four chapters in four days; yeah**** baby!**

**I know I said at the end of chapter 7 that this chapter would be the last one, but events have conspired against me. The chapter was getting too long and I hadn't even finished it when I realised this so I decided to split it into two. So this is the second last chapter now (I think; don't hold me to this until 9 ends it all) and the big twist I mentioned won't occur until the next chapter**** (again, don't hold me to this until it happens; this is me we're talking about here).**

**Those of you who have reviewed this piece have been so incredibly generous in your praise and encouragement for my work that I just want to say a blanket huge THANK YOU! for all your kind words. You are the reason I continue to write and enjoy so much what I do.**

**Thanks in particular go out to Hazmatt for continued supportive reviews; I always get really excited to see that you have reviewed my work and I hope you shall always enjoy what you read. Welcome to limeorcoconut and thank you for your review. I always get just a little surprised when someone points out that I'm writing suspense and portraying it well because I never see it myself. Thank you for making me feel good about that.**

**Again the rating is M, so please be mindful of this as you go forth.**

Silence – Chapter 8

She woke in a world of pain.

It felt like she'd been ripped into little pieces before being haphazardly put back together. There wasn't a single part of her that didn't hurt in one way or another. Stinging, sharp, dull, achy; all the words she'd ever known for pain were coming to the fore.

But more than the aches in her body was the ache in her heart as she remembered that Jack was still missing. She vaguely recalled what had happened on the plane and wondered if someone was looking after Hotch for her and if her daughter, her precious little bundle of joy, was alright despite being over a month early.

Her eyes opened on a far too familiar scene. She was lying on her back, surrounded by and hooked up to, machines on all sides. Yet another hospital room; she was really getting well and truly sick of this. Didn't she deserve some good luck by now?

She was searching for the call button when Brad appeared in the doorway and grinned at her. She smiled back as she thought again that if she wasn't so happily married to Aaron she would seriously have entertained some lusty thoughts about the hunky young doctor. Kelly was really very lucky to have scored such an amazing man.

"Welcome back to the land of the living. You seriously gave me a run for my money and tested my skills as a surgeon but I can safely say you will recover fully with no long-term side-effects from this horrible little chapter of your life."

"Glad to hear it. Now tell me about my family."

His grin dipped and he pulled up the chair sitting against the wall. She felt panic trying to worm through her calm but she shoved it back and said quietly, "Start at the top and work your way down."

He nodded agreement. "Hotch was admitted originally just overnight to be treated for shock but it appears he may be having a breakdown of some kind. This _hasn't_ as yet been confirmed but his care has been shifted to the psych unit for the time being and they are assessing him closely to make sure he gets what help he actually needs."

She winced as she thought of her so-strong husband being that vulnerable. "Who's watching over him?"

"Dave and Garcia have been taking turns sitting with him and keeping him up-to-date with your condition in particular as he is constantly asking after you."

She nodded, but pushed that troubling news aside to ponder at a later date as Brad took a quick call and returned to her side.

"Now, Jack and Toby were found yesterday evening and unfortunately the news isn't the best. Toby was badly beaten and required surgery for his multiple injuries; he's holding on but it's going to be touchy as to whether he'll make it.

"Jack was strangled into unconsciousness by a rope around his neck attached to a wall. We don't know exactly how long he was without oxygen…" he stopped as she started to cry, reaching out to take her hand and squeeze it tight. "Emily, you need to know he's fighting death. We don't know if there will be permanent damage from the lack of oxygen but he wasn't expected to still be alive this morning and he's not only still alive, his stats are better than they were last night when he was first admitted."

"Can I see him? Sit with him and let him know he isn't alone?"

Brad smiled gently. "I used my surgeon status to get Kelly and Kevin access to his room whenever they choose. They are taking turns sitting in there reading his favourite books to him. In addition, Jess came in and spent an hour with him this morning after her regular check-up. He definitely isn't alone, but I was intending to see if you wanted to take a walk in a bit and see both Hotch, Jack, Toby and your _girls_."

"Oh that would be…wait! Did you just say girls with a plural emphasis?"

He chuckled. "You are definitely on the mend to pick that up as fast as you did. Yes, there was a plural there. After we boarded the plane, we kicked everyone off and opened you up immediately to get to the bleeding. In opening you up, we found another baby trying to be born. So you have a son, a foster son in Toby since my guess is with no other family he'll come to you and Hotch, at least until further notice and assessment by the state anyway; and now you have two beautiful daughters."

She sighed softly. "And no one to help me with them."

He patted her hand gently as an orderly appeared with a wheelchair. "Carrie will be missed by a lot of people, I'm sure. But I also have no doubt whatsoever that the smart, remarkable woman who has survived so much in this past year and a half has come out the other side stronger than ever and will easily settle into motherhood as if born to it. I also doubt you'll be on your own through this; your mother calls daily from Europe and is only waiting for a blizzard to clear enough so that she can fly here to be with you and help you in whatever way you need. Your team will be on hand as much as they are able in-between work and we'll get you hooked up to a new mother's group that will also bolster and encourage you. You definitely won't be on your own through this. I promise."

New Section-

She watched Dave's head turn to look at her and the warmth that suddenly overtook his face did a lot for her ego as he stood.

"Emily."

Just her name, but she could hear the joy and love behind the word as he walked to her. His hug was gentle but all encompassing and the brush of his lips told her he was relieved to see her up and about.

"We were beginning to think we'd never see you smile again. When did you wake up?" He shot an accusing look at Brad, as if the man had kept her consciousness secret for longer than he had.

She smiled in amusement. "Only about half an hour; don't worry Dave, you haven't missed out on anything. How's Teresa doing?"

She watched as his entire body softened and seemed to relax into happiness. "She's doing much better. They won't be letting her out and about for another few days, but her responses are getting stronger and they envision her making a full recovery now that they've ascertained that there is no permanent damage. She'll be thrilled to know you are awake."

She nodded agreement and looked at her husband. It broke her heart to see him looking so weak and restless even as he rested.

"How long has he been like that?"

"Whenever he sleeps, which is a lot. The last time he woke up, he admitted that when he slept he found he was walking in a bleak landscape, devoid of life, and constantly walked around in circles looking for you to come back to him and make things better. Be prepared to see a different man to the one we all know and admire."

She swallowed tears as she nodded and let Brad move her closer to the bed. Then the two men moved out of the room in order to give her privacy.

She placed her hand on his gently and whispered, "Beloved heart, didn't I once promise to always come back to you? Why did you have to doubt this now of all times when we are just starting an amazing new chapter of our lives together? Aaron…"

She shifted her hand to run her fingers lightly through his hair, noting that it wasn't as soft and silky as she was used to as he stirred under her touch and opened his eyes. For long moments, he just blinked up at her and she received the impression that he wasn't really focused on her enough to see her clearly. Then, between one blink and the next, a smile lit his face with a near child-like joy that made her want to burst into tears anew for how out of place it was on this strong man's face.

"Emily! You're here! You're alive! Dave kept telling me and telling me but I didn't believe him because surely you'd be here with me if you were but now you are and it'll be alright. Won't it?"

She smiled gently and reigned in her emotions. "Yes my love. It'll all be alright now."

New Section-

Emily concentrated on taking slow deep breaths as Brad pushed her along the corridor. She appreciated his silence as she struggled to repair her emotions enough to see the children. Once that task was out of the way though, she intended to curl up in a ball and sob her heart out.

After Aaron had slipped back into a peaceful sleep, she'd spoken with the psychiatrist who had assessed him. Hearing that the strong, purposeful man she'd married was having a nervous breakdown had nearly done her in and it had completely broken her heart.

Doctor Renaldi Burke came highly recommended and while he and Brad didn't work together, they did have a close friendship that set Emily at ease immediately. Despite struggling to wrap her head around the knowledge that she was emotionally the strongest member of her family at that moment, something deep inside her heart was set to rest by seeing how the two men interacted like brothers as they settled into Dr Burke's office.

He detailed to her how events over the last few years had built up seemingly insurmountable walls in Aaron's psyche because he hadn't had any help to deal with it.

"This isn't to say you haven't been an amazing help to him. He would obviously open up to you more than to anyone else because you are his wife and the very act of being a husband in a healthy, thriving family environment with a wife who understands him as well as you do put this off for longer than it might have. But I fully believe that this event was inevitable simply because for everything he shared with you, there was double that that he didn't share with anyone. He just bottled it up and bottled it up until there was one straw too many on the load he already carried; and it broke him."

"Is it permanent?"

"Not at all; rest assured that I have already formulated a plan to restore him to full health. I'll be keeping him here in the hospital for another week while I work intensively with him. I'll be talking him through his entire life, from his earliest memories through to now because I believe the best thing I can do for him in the first instant is help him exorcise his own personal demons. It'll be hard for him, because he is such a strong man, but with your love and support coupled with my sheer stubbornness, we'll get him through this."

"Is it going to be a long process?"

"This is the uncertain bit and will depend largely on how he reacts. If he works with me on this and is honest in his responses and willing to do as I order him to, he may pull through this in a few months. But if he fights me, it's just going to become this long-drawn-out battle that will only do him more damage long before it starts to do him any good. I'll be speaking with his boss and alerting her to the fact that he is unfit for work until further notice. We'll use that fact, and the fact that he can't be the father his children need him to be until he is all better, to get him to work with us on this."

He'd gone on to detail how it would all work. He wanted to avoid using drugs if at all possible, so he was going to be seeing Aaron daily during the week for a couple of hours a day until further notice. He would also be entering Aaron into a weekly support group for men going through similar circumstances. Once he was out the other side of this, seeing a counsellor every month, and more frequently if he felt he needed it, was going to be a must to ensure life didn't start piling up on him again when the more prevalent support eased back.

She'd thanked him profusely for showing a level of care she frankly hadn't expected to receive in such a large and busy hospital and then they'd left.

The wheelchair came to a halt, jolting her out of her thoughts.

"Are you ready for this? We can take a couple of minutes out here if you need a little longer to get everything straight in your head."

She shook her head. "I want to get in to see him before I get so tired I need you to take me back to bed. I also want to see Toby and I _need_ to meet my daughter's more than just about anything else right now so we should go now while we can."

He didn't say anything; he just pushed her forward again just as Kelly came rushing out of a room down the hall. A smile lit her face all of a sudden and she beamed at them.

"Two of the people I most wanted to see. Jack's eyes just opened. I think he's waking up."

End-

**A/N: Apologies again that this isn't the end, but the end is in sight so stay tuned.**

**Just a reminder that reviewers are awesome and reviews totally make my day, so please feel free to let me know what you think about my work.**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Hello again! Considering the weekend before me, I am powering through this to try and get it finished**** (and finished in this chapter too) before the day is over. Wish me luck!**

**Wow Hazmatt. I was so thrilled to see you review so fast, I did a little happy dance in my seat. I too am looking forward to meeting the babies, so we should go do this. Thanks for your awesome words. Thanks to babygurl0506 also; your enthusiasm made me giggle with happiness and though you were mostly right with your words, we aren't entirely out of the woods just yet. Read on to see what I mean.**

**Rated M.**

Silence – Chapter 9

After Kelly had made her announcement, Brad had rushed off into the room and Kelly had leaned in to hug her and ask if she was alright. She endured this with barely restrained impatience before Kelly finally pushed her to the window at the side of the room as several nurses rushed past them.

Emily wondered where the closest toilet was because she was sure she would be sick. The amount of equipment surrounding her when she woke had been nothing compared to what was packed into the room around her son. Most of the machinery dwarfed his little body and the tubing down his throat and the electrodes attached to his head were all testament to the fragile vulnerability of this little boy she loved more than life itself.

She was suddenly so grateful for Kelly's company and support as she watched Brad work until the woman who had to be Jack's doctor came running in to take over. When he came out to join them so as not to be in the way, he brought with him tissues that he handed to her as she cried.

By the time the doctor exited the room a few minutes later, she'd got her emotions under control and was ready for whatever news she might hear.

Brad did the introductions. "Marie, this is Emily Hotchner, Jack's mother. Emily, this is Marie Turner-Wainscott, Jack's doctor."

"First off, let me assure you that every minute Jack is alive is another minute that brings him closer to recovery. I didn't expect him to survive to see this morning, so I'm thrilled to find he's still with us.

"Now, I don't believe he is conscious _as yet_, but I don't think it will be too long before he does wake up. It might only be another few days, if that. He's started to try to breathe on his own so we'll keep an eye on that and if his blood-oxygen stats continue to rise and hold steady, we'll remove the tube from his throat later today and continue to monitor him closely for continued improvement."

"What about his eyes opening?" Kelly asked with a slight frown.

"It could be attributed to any number of reasons. His eyes are now closed so it could just be a firing impulse in his brain getting ready to wake him up. Just like the involuntary movement of his lungs. It's really hard to say but he is getting stronger and I have hope that he will definitely recover now. Has Brad discussed with you the possibility that there may be brain damage?"

Emily nodded and twisted the tissues in her hands anxiously. "Do we know anything more about that?"

"No, and we won't know anything until he is awake and we can assess his responses to specific stimuli. But I will do everything in my power to bring him as close to all the way back as I can if all the way back is unattainable. You have my word on this."

She thanked Marie before the woman walked off to the main desk and then Brad pushed her into Jack's room and left her at his side to go and talk to Kelly.

For long minutes, she just sat and held his little hand in hers, comforted by the rhythmic beeping of the heart rate monitor and the regular hiss of the breathing apparatus ensuring he was now getting enough oxygen. She lightly traced the swelling and bruising on the right side of his face and she plotted murder if she ever got her hands on Whitman's spineless ass.

Her voice shook when she started to speak but she pushed through that shakiness as she reminded him about all the plans they'd made for the rest of the summer holidays; activities and outings they had been intending to do as a family. Knowing that activities that weren't stressful were good for Aaron also, she plotted a few more as she outlined a very full summer for their whole family. She told him about his new little sisters, even though she hadn't seen them yet and then she told him how much she loved him and wanted him to come back so that she could get a hug because his hugs were the best and she really needed one right now.

When emotion started to overwhelm her again, she called Brad back to her and asked if she could go to see Toby now. He indicated that Toby was currently unable to receive visitors but they could come back this way on the way back from the nursery if she wanted. She nodded agreement and as he pulled her backwards out of the room, Kelly resumed her seat and returned to the book she'd been reading to Jack when they arrived.

Silence again wrapped around them and she was thankful that Brad didn't feel the need to fill these moments with meaningless chatter or assurances of what couldn't be guaranteed.

When they arrived at the nursery, she pushed all the uncertainties and pain to the side as a smile enveloped her face. She'd longed for this day since she first met a young Aaron Hotchner in the library at her mother's house and now the reality was in front of her. She had a gorgeous little boy and now, two beautiful daughters to add to the family she'd always wanted.

A nurse bounced up and introduced herself as Zoë. She was thrilled to meet Emily finally and gushed that she was glad to see her awake and getting better. She led the way to the back corner.

"We keep the babies that don't need to be in the NICU ward but still need close monitoring close to the desk, just to be on the safe side. They both spent a little time under lights to deal with some jaundice but apart from that, they are all but perfect. The child you birthed naturally is the smaller of the two, which is more than a little unusual, but she is just as strong and healthy as her sister and doesn't appear to have suffered for being smaller and unnoticed in all the scans. You simply have two perfect little girls."

They set her wheelchair in the middle of the two cots and gave her a minute to marvel and admire before asking her if she wanted a cuddle with them. The look she shot them told them it had been a silly question but it lightened the atmosphere considerably as Zoë and Brad laughed.

"Firstborn first, I think."

Emily was nearly breathless by the time she actually held her little girl in her arms. What was left whooshed out of her in a rush as something clicked deep within her soul. She knew, with a knowledge stronger than any she'd ever had, that there was nothing she wouldn't do for this precious little human being in her arms. She'd known she had maternal instincts where Jack was concerned, but those instincts suddenly honed to a razor's edge and she knew without doubt that she would kill to protect her family in a way she hadn't been absolutely sure of before.

"Wow," she breathed softly. "Wow. I didn't know…didn't understand. Oh. It feels almost disloyal to Jack, this fierce passion and desire I suddenly have to protect and defend, yet I know this increased maternal instinct is extending and growing to include Jack as if I _had_ borne him and given him life." She looked up at Brad. "Is that so strange?"

He shook his head slowly. "I don't think so. For sure it doesn't always happen like this, but you loved him as your own already; this just fully erased the line that was subconsciously there that still said he was Haley's son first. He'll benefit incredibly from what just occurred and now, when he needs it so much, that can only be a good thing. Don't feel bad, just embrace it and let it be what it is; the love of a mother for _all_ her children."

Zoë suddenly bounced back into view. "Do you and your husband have names in mind for these little girls? I mean, we can continue calling them Hotchner # 1 and Hotchner # 2, but it seems so impersonal."

"Actually, I think it borders on sacrilege, so you'll be delighted to know we settled on names not half an hour ago."

She squealed softly and clapped her hands. "Excellent; just let me grab the necessary forms and then we can get this down properly."

Emily smiled slightly at her enthusiasm and yawned slightly before looking again at Brad. "Thank you for what you just said and even more than that, thank you for all your support since I woke up here. Oh, and thank you for saving my life even before that." She sighed. "How about I just say thank you for everything. My family and I will never forget all that you've done for us."

She watched in amazement as Brad blushed and muttered that it was all nothing. And she remembered what Kelly had said about how sweet her husband was. So she smiled slightly and let him brush off all that he'd done and she vowed to never forget to be grateful that he cared so much. Then Zoë was back and it was time to give identity to the tiny little girl now gazing sleepily up at her. Only she found her voice had deserted her as she fell in love again as she took in the perfect features and brown eyes so like Aaron's before her. She lowered her head and gently kissed the tiny, wrinkled forehead, soothing with a soft noise as she made a sound of displeasure for being disturbed.

"Emily? Did you want us to give you another minute?"

She shook her head without taking her eyes away from the beauty in front of her. She was irrevocably lost and in love and utterly thrilled by the notion.

"India Rose Hotchner. Her name, is India Rose Hotchner."

Zoë cooed over the name and Brad murmured that the name was unusual but lovely and suited her perfectly. Emily just marvelled that the identity she'd just given her daughter simply made her even more loveable.

A minute later, the process repeated itself as she held her second child close and felt the connection tighten and grow. How precious she was, how beautiful and perfect. She was definitely bigger than her sister, but still smaller than she was expecting.

A tapping nearby caused her to look up and round and she saw everyone minus Kelly standing at the window of the nursery and waving at her, huge smiles on their faces. Even as it sunk in how loved she was and how much she would have been missed if she hadn't survived, she realised just how much she loved all of these people; her extended family. She waved back with a smile of her own.

She looked back down at her more immediate family and smiled tenderly. "This little princess is named Chloe Marie Hotchner. It was the name we would have chosen for our next daughter down the track, but it seems oddly appropriate now to name her this. She looks like a Chloe."

Murmured noises of agreement met this firm announcement and Emily smiled in contentment to realise her family was complete. That wasn't to say more children couldn't be thought of in the future, but for the now, her family was perfect and it was complete.

Zoë checked all the spelling with her to ensure their names were spelt correctly for the birth certificates, Chloe was returned to her cot and Brad wheeled her out of the room and into the circus Dave had corralled together when he went round to everyone and told them she was awake. She endured their well-wishes and hugs and then Brad shooed them off saying she still had to see Toby before she could rest again.

As everyone moved off with more happy smiles, she thought seriously about just going back to bed as weariness overtook her, but this was overridden by a sudden urgent need to see the orphaned little boy who was her son's best friend so she kept quiet as they walked to the lift.

Several minutes later, they were given the go ahead into Toby's room but they got as far as the door before Brad stopped pushing her and she thought she definitely would have fallen over if she'd been standing.

Toby's room looked incredibly similar to Jack's in that it was filled with equipment and monitors and the steady beep, beep, beep of his heart beating. But the little boy himself looked like he'd been run over by a truck not once, but multiple times and her desire to murder Whitman rose higher still. His right arm was entirely encased in a cast, as was his right leg and left ankle and every inch of skin she could actually see was covered in heavy bruising and cuts, most with stitches showing.

But it was the woman sitting in the wheelchair at Toby's side who really caught and held her attention as Brad seemed to remember himself and moved them quietly forward.

"Carrie?"

She jerked in her chair and turned, wincing as she did so and Emily winced in sympathy even as she smiled her happiness-filled confusion to see this woman alive before her.

If anything, Carrie looked worse than her son. She didn't have any casts on her limbs, but her skin where it showed through the t-shirt and skirt ensemble she wore was covered with bandages. What wasn't covered with bandages was covered with bruises several days old and many cuts that _all_ appeared to have stitches. Her arm was in a sling and held close to her chest for support from where her shoulder had been shot and the bulk of the t-shirt indicated most of her torso was wrapped in bandages too.

"How is this possible?" she asked hoarsely as tears started to slide down her cheeks. After months of living in the same house with this woman, with similar tastes and interests in just about everything, including their love for their sons, Emily had been heartbroken by the news that she'd never see her friend again. She'd been thinking of the younger woman more as a sister as much as a friend and the pain of her death had cut her deeply even though she'd been distracted at the time by the news that Jack was missing and the secret knowledge that her baby was coming early.

Carrie leaned over and awkwardly hugged her and Emily more than returned the embrace even though she was careful not to put too much pressure into the motion.

When she pulled back, the tissue box materialised between them and Brad crouched down as he held it.

"Knowing that Carrie had already been put at risk by her abusive husband and that, as a cop he would have more know-how and contacts, the state contacted the US Marshall's service and asked them if they would consider her a candidate for witness protection. No one was putting it past the bastard to come to the hospital to finish off the job if he heard that she'd survived and with Jack and Toby missing, Chief Strauss backed the request and Carrie officially 'died' on the table. Unofficially, she was spirited away to a secret clinic nearby for continued medical care while the FBI looked for Whitman and the boys.

"Now that he's been picked up and denied bail for his horrific crimes, it was safe for her to come back to 'life'. It won't be a widely known thing until Whitman is in jail, but the evidence of what he's done is overwhelming and as he's pleaded guilty to all the charges, it's only left to the judge to sentence him. This will happen on Friday and then Carrie can safely be brought back to everyone's attention."

Emily nodded slowly at this. Even though she'd hurt horribly to know the woman was gone forever, she was far more relieved to know this lie was spread for her safety and deciding it wasn't all that important in the grand scheme of things, she let her hurt go.

"I hope you would still want to work for us as a nanny, now more than ever, but I will understand completely if, now that you are free of Whitman's grasp, you want to go elsewhere because the memories of what happened in my home are too strong for you to return to."

Carrie shook her head emphatically and winced at the motion. "I don't want to leave; not if I don't have to. I mean, I did such a lousy job at protecting Jack and…"

"Stop right there! I won't let you belittle what you did for us. I didn't see the footage from the camera but Garcia did and she touted your lioness-protector skills for all she was worth. She said you were the reason the boys were able to get away in the first place, that you threw yourself at the man who was your nightmare in order to give them time to run. If he caught up to them afterwards, that was _not_ your fault and I _won't_ allow you to lay blame where there is none. Do you understand me?"

Carrie nodded slowly. "Alright. I was going to add though, that we don't have anywhere else to go. Not really anyway. We don't have any family and to be honest, I felt more welcomed into your family than I have since I was orphaned at 8 and placed in foster care. And I still really need a job." She frowned slightly. "Not that I'll be any good to you for a while, but if you still want us to stay, then I am still honoured to work for you."

Emily laughed in relief. "You have no idea how thrilled I am to hear you say that. The thought of what I was about to embark on all on my own was doing my head in."

Carrie frowned again for a moment and then her eyes went huge. "Wait, wait, wait! You aren't pregnant anymore. Oh my god! You had the baby early! And with everything that has happened…I can't believe you aren't a nervous wreck."

The reminder that Aaron wasn't well popped into her head, and now having someone who understood here in front of her who could comfort her, she promptly burst into tears again.

Carrie reached out with her good hand to do just that as Brad quietly detailed what had occurred in her absence and Carrie made a sound of dismay.

"I'm so sorry; how thoughtless I am to say what I did, even unknowingly. Well, we can certainly deal with this. Hey you, listen to me." She waited until Emily watched her out of watery eyes. "This isn't the end of the world. Overwhelming to be sure, but not outside of our control. You have two beautiful daughters to add to the mix. Jack _is_ getting better, particularly if Brad says he is, because Brad walks on water and wouldn't lie to us about this fact." Emily laughed weakly as Brad blushed and ducked his head when they both looked at him. Carrie smiled and continued. "Sure, Aaron is weak at the moment, but you are strong and I have a lot of thankfulness to repay for all those self-defence lessons he insisted I take; between us, there is no way he isn't fully recovered by summers' end. It'll be rocky, but we'll get there. Alright?"

Emily nodded and blew her nose as hope rose in her. She shook her head suddenly and laughed softly. "How funny are we; vowing to make everyone better while we sit here in our wheelchairs."

The humour of the moment got to them all and they were still laughing when a small voice called out, "Mummy?"

Carrie turned to comfort her son and Emily looked up at Brad with a sleepy smile. "I think I'm ready for bed now."

They said goodbye to Carrie and Toby and Brad pushed her back to her room. He assisted her back into bed and ensured her I.V. line was untangled and back on it's stand. When he looked down at his patient just prior to leaving the room, he was pretty certain that was determination and happiness he saw on her face as she slept and dreamt of the future in front of her.

With the room in silence once again but for the steady beeping of the heart monitor, he flicked off the light and left her to dream as he went back to work.

End-

**A/N: Whew! All done finally. Apologies again for how long this story has taken to complete. At least I can assure you that for at least the next month my postings will be far more consistent due to working in a very quiet office role where there are no issues with me writing on the job. **

**Reviews are excellent and more than welcome, so please let me know what you think and I will see you all again soon.**


End file.
